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^V\[  UNIVERS/^        ^lOS-ANCEIf/., 


<f7uoNvsui^ 


THE 


REVIEW 


OP  THE 


REVOLUTIONARY  ELEMENTS 


AND  OP  THE 


ASPECT  OF  RECONSTRUCTION; 


WITH  A  PLAN  TO  RESTORE  HARMONY  BETWEEN  THE  TWO  RACES 
IN  THE   SOUTHERN  STATES. 


BY    -A.    COLORED    MA.N. 


BROOKLYN,  L.  I. 
OCTOBER  1868. 


SRLE 
JJRl 


To  the  People  of  the  United  States, 


The  design  of  the  Review,  as  indicated  by  its  title,  is  to  note 
with  care  the  new  birth  of  the  Republic  and  to  bring  the  colored 
people  into  the  foreground  where  they  may  be  seen  as  the  advocates 
of  the  union  between  the  two  races,  and  upon  the  basis  that  will 
secure  freedom  and  elevation  on  one  hand  and  peace  and  good-will 
on  the  other. 

But  while  it  may  be  right  that  the  colored  people  should  stand 
back  until  the  position  for  them  is  established  through  the  genius 
and  the  magnanimity  of  the  dominant  race,  yet  the  sublimity  of  the 
work,  to  build  up  the  Republic  with  the  new  materials  at  hand, 
and  the  necessity  of  testing  their  skill  and  usefulness  in  the  new 
field  where  the  destiny  of  the  nation  has  placed  them,  will  fully 
justify  the  attempt  to  create  such  ideas  in  the  history  of  the  times 
as  will  make  a  profound  impression  in  their  favor  in  the  minds  of 
the  American  people.  As  the  time  has  arrived  to  redeem  the 
"solemn  pledge"  of  fidelity  made  to  the  friends  who  first  led  the 
author  into  the  mission,  and  the  fact  that  the  purpose  of  the  declar- 
ation as  written  contained  the  principles  which  aimed  at  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  colored  people  of  the  United  States,  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
strip  it  of  all  assumption  and  at  the  same  time  show  the  grandeur  of 
the  subject,  and  the  overwhelming  effect  that  will  follow  from  the 
development  of  the  plan  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  object. 
Yiewing  it  at  that  time  as  the  initiative  to  the  reformation  in  the 
institutions  that  were  organized  for  the  management  of  the  philan- 
thropy of  the  nation,  and  make  the  result  redound  to  the  glory  of 
the  American  people  by  the  elevation  of  the  proscribed  race  of  the 
country,  it  will  present  a  feature  sufficiently  grand  to  command  the 
approbation  it  will  aim  to  secure  by  the  publication  of  this  work. 

If  the  philanthropists  and  the  statesmen  were  guided  by  the 
spirit  of  justice  in  the  attempts  to  represent  the  colored  man  at  any 
time  in  the  history  of  the  country  previous  to  the  war,  or  if  they 
had  a  clear  conception  of  the  requirements  of  the  nation,  there 
would  have  been  no  necessity  for  the  efforts  made  by  me  to  overturn 
the  policy  by  which  they  were  governed  until  the  solution  of  the 


several  questions  were  reached  by  the  Rebellion.  But  the  fact  that 
through  their  apathy  or  want  of  appreciation,  the  people  of  the 
United  States  lost  the  opportunity  to  realize  the  benefit  of  the  plan 
written  by  the  colored  man  to  shield  the  country  from  civil  war, 
and  the  fact  that  its  existence  was  known  to  a  leading  member  in 
the  Cabinet  and  to  others  in  Congress,  and  was  resorted  to  at  the 
eleventh  hour  to  conciliate  the  border  States,  will  make  it  an  im- 
portant feature  in  the  efforts  to  establish  the  position  for  the  repre- 
resentative  men  of  my  race. 

In  rising  to  the  surface  from  the  depth  where  the  author  was 
buried  by  those  who  were  struggling  to  occupy  the  position  they 
were  unqualified  to  fill,  the  first  duty  is  to  proclaim  the  solemn  fact 
that  the  time  has  come  to  assume  the  duty  and  secure  a  general 
recognition  of  the  mission  in  the  name  of  his  race  and  country.  It 
will  be  sustained  by  the  magnitude  of  the  work  that  has  been 
accomplished  for  that  purpose,  and  to  make  up  a  record  sufficiently 
brilliant  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  projector  of  the  revolution 
that  was  designed  to  sweep  out  of  existence  the  powerful  but  useless 
benevolent  institutions  that  stood  in  the  way  to  control  the  sympathy 
of  the  public  in  behalf  of  the  colored  people,  without  conferring 
upon  them  any  corresponding  benefit.  While  the  ulterior  object 
of  this  grand  movement  was  hid  from  the  public,  yet  it  was  fully 
known  to  the  leading  managers,  who  made  the  most  decided  efforts 
to  shield  themselves  from  the  consequences  of  its  development,  but 
as  they  have  lost  the  power  to  command  the  situation,  it  is  impor- 
tant that  the  result  should  be  announced  as  the  first  victory  of  the 
pen  of  the  colored  man  over  the  genius  of  the  dominant  class  ! 

It  was  the  basis  of  the  plan  for  the  extinction  of  the  "  peculiar 
institution  of  the  Southern  States,"  as  it  will  be  seen,  by  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  secret  history  of  the  efforts  to  inspire  prominent  men  of 
the  two  sections  of  the  country  with  the  spirit  adequate  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  work  with  the  agency  of  Congress,  and  thereby 
save  it  from  the  terrible  civil  war  it  has  undergone.  But  in  spite 
of  their  brilliant  intellect  in  other  things,  yet,  in  this  field  of  labor 
they  were  not  only  powerless  in  the  attempt  to  stay  it,  but  there  are 
contingencies  that  must  be  provided  for  with  other  remedies  than 
those  indicated  in  any  of  the  plans  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union. 
"  As  one  born  in  due  season"  to  labor  in  the  name  of  the  colored 
people  without  exciting  the  sensibility  of  the  dominant  race,  it  is 


necessary  that  the  claims  upon  the  attention  of  all  should  be  estab- 
lished free  from  any  party  proclivity,  and  without  concealing  the 
ulterior  purpose.  To  this  end,  the  plan  will  be  submitted  with  the 
details  indicating  its  ramifications,  and  with  the  proof  of  the  inflex- 
ible integrity  with  which  the  mission  has  been  sustained  it  will 
carry  with  it  sufficient  weight  to  justify  the  dedication  of  this  work 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States  by 

Their  obedient  servant, 

L.  H.  PUTNAM. 
BROOKLYN,  L.  I.,  April  13,  1868. 


6 
CHAP.  I. 

THE  REVOLUTIONARY  ELEMENTS   OF  THE  REBELLION  CAREFULLY 

CONSIDERED. 

As  nothing  can  be  submitted  to  the  country,  that  ought  to  com- 
mand a  greater  degree  of  attention  than  the  complications  that  have 
followed  the  measures  for  the  adjustment  and  for  the  restoration  of 
the  union,  it  is  important  that  the  subject  should  be  carefully  con- 
sidered from  the  necessities  of  the  general  knowledge  and  the  har- 
mony that  should  prevail  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the  two  sec- 
tions. For  while  the  work  for  the  political  regeneration  of  the 
Southern  States  has  been  carried  forward  with  the  greatest  vigor, 
yet,  the  elements  that  underlie  the  strata  of  reconstruction  must 
either  be  considered  at  this  juncture,  or  be  met  at  a  disadvantage, 
when  the  means  to  deal  with  them  will  be  out  of  existence. 

The  first  supposition  is,  that  the  work  upon  the  battle  field  having 
been  accomplished,  that  the  spirit  that  led  to  the  commencement  of 
the  strife  is  paralyzed  ,leaving  the  people  in  no  other  condition  than 
that  of  submission  ?  If  the  means  to  ascertain  the  fact  as  to  how  far 
the  feelings  of  the  secessionists  have  been  trained  into  loyalty  by  the 
bayonet  of  the  Union  soldier,  and  that  the  acceptance  of  the  situation 
will  be  realized  in  the  stability  of  civil  government  ushered  into 
existence  under  the  new  order  of  things ;  then,  indeed,  the  time  is 
at  hand  when  fraternity  and  industry  will  consolidate  the  interests 
of  the  two  races  into  a  common  union  under  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. But  this  is  the  bright  side,  with  nothing  to  sustain  the  hopes 
that  reconstruction  will  be  successfully  carried  out  without  infusing 
into  the  resources  of  the  Southern  States  the  vitality  contemplated 
by  the  people  under  the  teaching  of  their  leading  men  and  by 
whom  they  were  driven  into  the  rebellion. 

The  chief  stone  of  the  corner  of  the  Confederate  Government 
was  Slavery ;  and  the  edifice  erected  upon  it,  adorned  as  it  was  with 
all  the  glittering  hopes  of  the  builders,  now  lies  buried  beneath  the 
ruins !  The  grand  idea  now  is,  to  aid  in  hewing  out  another  through 
the  genius  of  freemen  and  place  it  under  the  Federal  Government, 
that  its  strength  may  be  increased  to  the  extent  necessary  to  support 
freedom  in  the  entire  country  with  the  concurrence  of  the  people. 


The  force  by  which  the  first  link  of  the  chain  of  the  Union  was 
broken  by  secession,  and  by  which  the  power  of  the  general  govern- 
ment was  destroyed  for  the  time,  is  a  subject  that  cannot  be  lost 
sight  of  without  committing  a  fatal  mistake,  when  it  is  considered 
that  the  feelings  of  the  people  were  fired  with  a  degree  of  hostility 
that  may  still  excite  them  to  the  extent  that  their  opposition  may 
paralyze  the  power  of  the  civil  authority.  How  to  deal  with  them, 
is  the  question  that  every  colored  man  must  feel  with  sufficient 
weight  to  justify  the  attention  the  subject  will  demand  from  the 
standpoint  it  will  be  considered  in  their  behalf.  For  while  univer- 
sal emancipation  has  come  upon  the  country  "from  its  military 
necessity,"  and  has  opened  the  avenues  to  all  the  rights  and  immu- 
nities necessary  for  the  elevation  of  the  freemen,  yet,  to  incorporate 
these  principles  in  the  organic  laws  and  effectually  change  the 
autonomy  of  the  non-reconstructed  States  by  virtue  of  the  power  of 
the  Federal  Government,  is  the  result  that  could  only  follow ifrom  the 
guidance  of  an  unseen  Jia/nd.  This  is  the  political  avalanche  that 
has  buried  the  traditional  policy  of  one  section,  and  it  will  recoil  upon 
the  other  and  create  a  common  level  for  every  State  of  the  Union. 
But  whatever  may  be  the  policy  of  the  Loyal  States  in  reference  to 
the  equalization  of  the  suffrage  as  a  national  measure,  yet  every- 
thing that  is  sacred  to  freedom  and  would  promote  the  prosperity 
of  the  country,  demands  that  there  should  be  but  one  destiny  and 
that  it  should  be  fixed  by  the  united  efforts  of  the  people. 

The  breaking  up  of  the  relations  between  the  two  races,  resulting 
in  the  general  disorganization  of  society,  without  any  landmarks  to 
guide  to  harmony  ;  and  superinduced  as  it  may  have  been  by 
causes  over  which  the  country  had  no  control,  yet  it  is  a  revolution 
in  the  Eepublic  that  all  good  men  must  deplore,  in  spite  of  the  re- 
generating features  it  has  brought  with  it.  And  why  ?  because  the 
rancor  that  has  been  engendered  and  the  humiliation  inflicted  upon 
the  people  upon  whom  the  weight  of  the  calamity  has  fallen,  will 
require  the  most  earnest  labor  of  the  statesman  to  obliterate  it. 

For  the  Appomattox  surrender  was  in  itself  more  than  an  ordi- 
nary incident  in  the  fortune  of  war  from  the  political  consequences 
it  involved,  and  yet,  in  point  of  importance  it  will  weigh  next  to 
nothing  in  comparison  with  the  disaster  that  has  overwhelmed 
the  people  by  the  extinction  of  the  dogma  of  secession,  and  in  the 
elevation  of  the  freedmen  as  the  counterpoise  to  the  principles  that 


governed  the  statesmen  of  Secessia.  If  they  had  gone  into  that 
0-reat  struggle  with  the  aid  of  the  colored  man  and  with  the  emblem 
of  Freedom  emblazoned  upon  the  banners  that  waved  upon  the 
battle-fields,  the  impression  is,  that  his  support  would  have  led  to  a 
revision  of  the  map  of  the  United  States.  If,  then,  the  fatal  results 
attending  the  want  of  affinity  between  the  leaders  in  the  rebellion 
and  the  emancipation  of  the  colored  people,  is  fully  established  in 
the  minds  of  all  intelligent  men,  then  nothing  can  be  fixed  with 
more  clearness  than  the  landmarks  that  will  warn  the  country  of 
the  dangers  that  would  attend  any  reactionary  measures  against 
equal  liberty  in  the  Southern  States. 


CHAP.  II. 

« 

THE  LAST  HOURS  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  CONGRESS   AND  THE 
QUESTION  or  EMANCIPATION. 

The  key  note  which  was  sounded  in  the  last  hours  of  the  sitting 
of  the  Confederate  Congress,  when  the  question  of  emancipation 
and  the  enrolment  of  colored  men  as  soldiers  to  fight  their  battles, 
was  submitted  for  consideration  by  the  statesmen  who  saw  in  that 
measure  their  only  salvation,  must  be  taken  as  the  true  guide,  and 
will  enable  them  to  point  out  the  future  policy  of  the  country  with 
an  unerring  hand. 

It  is  universally  admitted  that  the  "  Institution,"  which  led  to  the 
war  for  its  preservation,  was  the  source  of  weakness  that  was  fatal 
to  the  Confederate  Government,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  humilia- 
tion that  followed  the  terrible  catastrophe  as  the  sequel  of  the 
rebellion.  If  the  people  can  study  anything  from  it,  they  will  learn 
that  the  first  requirement  of  free  government  in  the  Southern 
States  is  the  extinction  of  caste,  and  is  the  sentiment  that  should 
be  diffused  in  that  section  of  the  country  to  enable  them  to  work 
with  the  earnestness  by  which  they  may  rise  again  and  lead  in  the 
revolution  inaugurated  by  the  emancipation  of  the  colored  people, 
and  which  underlies  the  measures  for  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Republic.  While  it  is  true  that  the  work  of  freedom  and  eleva- 
tion did  not  originate  with  the  Southern  people,  yet  it  is  equally 


9 

true  that  it  should  have,  and  hence  the  necessity  of  a  clear  con- 
ception of  the  situation  which  must  be  seized  upon  by  them  as 
the  basis  to  establish  the  union  between  the  two  races. 

The  fact  that  the  military  bill  is  insufficient  in  itself  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  work,  inasmuch  as  an  important  part  will 
fall  upon  those  who  are  ostracised  by  that  measure,  will  be  fully 
realized  when  it  is  considered  that  to  secure  a  freehold  interest  in 
the  soil  for  the  freedmen  will  depend  upon  the  concessions  that 
may  be  made  for  that  purpose  by  the  planters,  and  without  any 
reference  to  their  loyalty. 

The  Revolutionary  Elements  of  the  Rebellion  which  have  fixed  the 
destiny  of  the  Southern  States,  take  their  source  from,  the  measures 
adopted  by  the  nation  for  the  Reservation  of  the  Republic,  and  may 
be  classified  with  the  exploits  upon  the  battle  fields,  where  liberals 
and  conservatives  stood  side  by  side  under  the  guidance  of  the  power 
created  by  the  constitution,  and  called  into  requisition7  by  exigencies 
that  were  wholly  unprovided  for  by  theframers  of  that  instrument. 
To  consummate  the  work  with  the  sword  without  the  agency  of  the 
national  council  was  an  impossibility,  and  yet,  to  reconcile  the  people 
to  the  means  employodfor  that  purpose,  is  the  task  which  stands  in 
its  magnitude  equal  to  the  efforts  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

But  to  look  upon  the  destructive  ideas  that  may  exist  in  the 
opposition  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the  colored  people,  is  the  duty 
that  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  all  the 
Northern  planks  used  in  the  construction  of  the  platforms  to  sustain 
the  "  peculiar  institution"  of  the  Southern  States,  were  split  up  and 
broken  into  fragments  by  its  weight  and  every  thing  lost  to  the 
cause  they  were  designed  to  support. 

The  next  phase  it  presents  in  the  regular  order  of  things,  is  the 
Civil  Governments  inaugurated  by  national  legislation,  which  gives 
the  subject  a  novel  aspect,  and  has  infused  into  it  a  vitality  far 
greater  than  it  could  ever  attain  by  any  other  means,  and  the  ques- 
tion is,  will  the  acceptance  of  the  situation  by  the  people  make  it  the 
initiative  to  the  measures  for  their  relief,  from  the  humiliation  that 
followed  the  downfall  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  reconcile  them 
to  the  enfranchisement  of  the  freedmen  ?  "Was  it  a  measure  forced 
upon  the  nation  by  the  disorganized  condition  of  things,  which  made 
it  the  only  safeguard  against  anarchy,  and  enables  it  to  stand  in  the 


10 

position  to  calm  the  minds  of  the  people  by  its  patriotic  mediation  ? 
In  the  answer  to  this  question,  let  the  voice  of  the  colored  people  be 
heard ! 

While  nothing  could  be  more  grand  and  providential  in  its  con- 
ception than  reconstruction  upon  the  basis  of  equal  liberty  for  all, 
and  while  it  will  open  the  only  field  to  reach  the  most  elevated 
position  in  the  work  to  restore  the  freedmen  to  the  soil  as  the  agri- 
cultural class,  and  thereby  give  emancipation  its  true  value,  yet 
nothing  but  the  irresistable  decree  by  which  it  was  forced  upon  the 
country,  has  led  to  its  acceptance,  and  enables  the  friends  of  free- 
dom to  proclaim  in  the  language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
that  all  men  are  free  and  equal. 

Proclaim  it  far  and  near,  that  it  is  the  result  of  the  revojution 
created  by  the  rebellion  .that  is  sweeping  out  of  existence  the  pro- 
slavery  elements  by  which  the  nation  was  governed  from  its  found- 
ation, and  that  it  is  the  great  source  of  relief  for  the  statesmen 
whose  genius  was  tarnished  by  the  degrading  labor  imposed  upon 
them  to  delude  the  masses  with  the  false  impression  that  the  dogma 
which  underlies  republican  institutions  in  this  country  that  all  are 
free  and  equal,  means  politically  the  white  man.  It  was  by  the 
teaching  of  this  heresy  that  the  veneration  for  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  lost  with  the  patriotism  that  gave  it  its 
existence  and  reduced  that  instrument  to  the  standard  of  the 
Delphic  enigma,  making  it  the  source  of  confusion  in  the  minds  of 
the  people.  Therefor  let  all  good  men  repudiate  the  chimerical 
ideas  which  contaminate  the  mind,  and  let  Democracy  in  its  purity 
rule  the  nation  through  the  wisdom  and  unceasing  vigilancy  of  the 
people  concentrated  in  the  National  Congress,  where  the  divine 
attribute,  as  manifested  by  the  extension  of  equal  suffrage  to  all, 
will  be  maintained  and  radiate  to  every  part  of  the  great  common- 
wealth through  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States. 

The  precipitancy  with  which  universal  freedom  in  its  reality 
was  launched  upon  the  country  by  the  surrender  at  Winchester,  and 
paralyzed  the  minds  of  those  who  were  wholly  unprepared  for  the 
duty  it  imposed  upon  the  loyal  and  patriotic  masses  to  accept  with 
sincere  serenity  the  ideas  of  equality  and  fraternity,  yet,  it  is  the 
pre-requisite  to  the  recognition  of  that  class  of  American  citizens 
who  were  elevated  to  the  exalted  position  by  the  power  of  a  higher 
law  than  that  of  man.  But  to  suppose  that  that  sublime  principle 


11 

will  become  universal  with  the  agency  of  the  bayonet  or  by  the 
amendment  of  the  Federal  constitution,  is  to  hope  against  hope,  as 
long  as  a  large  portion  of  the  people  are  only  convinced  against 
their  will. 

The  counterpoise  to  all  reactionary  measures  is  in  the  mission 
of  the  colored  man,  who  has  been  brought  upon  the  political  surface 
and  stands  erect  in  the  position  where  he  was  placed  by  the  destiny 
of  the  nation,  and  to  approach  the  contending  parties,  made  up 
with  the  loyal  and  patriotic  liberal  and  conservative  minds  in  one 
section  in  connection  with  the  Union  men,  and  the  secessionists  of 
the  Southern  States,  to  take  counsel  for  the  adjustment  of  the 
differences  that  neutralize  the  efforts  to  promote  the  fraternal  rela- 
tions that  make  up  the  unity  of  the  republic,  is  the  first  and  the 
most  important  duty  that  will  bet  performed  in  their  behalf  by 
Congress. 

The  first  point  submitted  in  behalf  of  the  race,  is,  that  as  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States  was  no  barrier  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  civil  war,  and  that  its  force  was  paralyzed  by  the 
belligerent  measures  employed  for  that  purpose  on  one  side,  and  as 
the  existence  of  the  republic  on  the  other  was  only  sustained  by  the 
loyalty  of  the  government  and  the  people  under  the  law  of  self- 
preservation,  therefore,  no  adjustment  is  possible  under  its  provisions 
which  makes  it  necessary  that  all  should  agree  to  establish  the 
basis  of  the  reunion  by  the  acceptance  of  the  situation  as  indicated 
and  accepted  by  the  conventions  arid  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
States. 

The  second  point  is,  that  emancipation  and  the  enfranchisement 
of  the  citizens  by  virtue  of  the  military  plan  ol  reconstruction  as  a 
national  measure  should  be  recognized  and  the  principles  embodied 
in  the  organic  laws  of  every  State  in  either  section  of  the  country, 
to  maintain  the  consistency  and  the  dignity  of  the  nation,  and 
inspire  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  with  the  necessary  energy 
to  work  fully  up  to  the  requirements  of  the  new  condition  of  things. 


12 


CHAP.  III. 

THE  NATIONAL  ASPECT  or  RECONSTRUCTION. 

The  critical  view  of  the  subject  in  its  national  aspect  at  this  junc- 
ture, may  afford  the  means  to  see  how  far  the  loyal  States  will  go 
into  the  measures  imposed  upon  the  country.  For,  as  nothing  could 
be  more  serious  in  its  tendency  to  undermine  the  Republic  than  the 
repudiation  of  the  suffrage  bill  adopted  by  Congress,  in  the 
face  of  the  fact  that  its  force  must  be  the  same  in  every 
State,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  attempt  should 
be  made  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  people  to  it,  as  they 
must  see  the  justice  of  the  demand  it  will  impose.  The 
necessity  for  the  legislation  by  which  the  inherent  rights  of  State 
legislatures  and  conventions  to  control  the  suffrage,  were  surren- 
dered to  meet  the  exigincies  of  the  nation  by  the  adoption  of  the 
military  bill,  will  sink  far  deeper  into  the  vitals  of  the  Republic 
than  the  mind  can  penetrate  through  the  confusion  the  subject  pre- 
sents at  this  juncture.  The  sacrifices  the  people  are  called  upon  to 
make  by  the  prompting  of  their  patriotism  to-  preserve  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country,  by  the  efforts  to  purify  the  organic  Laws  of 
every  Loyal  State  of  the  proscriptive  provisions  which  stands  as  the 
barrier  to  the  political  elevation  of  the  colored  man,  not  merely  as 
an  act  of  justice  "to  him,  but  to  increase  the  sublimity  of  the  work 
of  their  Representatives  to  fix  the  destiny  of  the  Southern  States. 
For  it  cannot  be  supposed  by  any  thinking  mind,  that  the  validity 
of  the  measures  of  enfranchisement,  will  only  apply  to  one  section 
and  not  to  the  other,  for  that  would  constitute  a  discrimination 
wholly  incompatible  with  the  rights  of  these  commonwealths,  when 
the  position  in  which  these  States  will  stand  in  the  Union,  is  con- 
sidered. This  has  come  upon  the  country  by  the  centralization  of 
power  in  the  Federal  Government  that  was  exercised  previous  to 
the  war  by  the  States,  that  constitutes  the  revolution,  and  its  mag- 
nitude will  only  be  seen  by  the  proceedings  of  the  people  in  the 
Conventions  and  the  Legislatures  where  the  suffrage  question  as  a 
national  measure  must  be  considered.  The  first  phase  in  the  advance 
to  centralization,  is  in  the  consolidated  efforts  to  crush  the  rebellion 
with  the  sword,  and  as  that  catastrophe  is  the  result  of  the  work  of 


13 

all  who  filled  their  position  in  the  ranks  of  the  Union  armies,  or 
contributed  material  or  moral  means  for  their  support  upon  the 
battle  field,  therefore,  for  weal  or  wo  it  must  redound  to  the 
nation.  From  that  point,  none  who  have  survived  the  great 
contest  can  recede  or  pause  to  exhibit  any  sympathy  for  the  Southern 
people,  that  could  not  be  extended  to  them  in  the  hour  of  need 
without  the  betrayal  of  a  degree  of  weakness  that  is  neither  useful 
nor  dignified.  In  the  dispersal  of  the  Confederate  armies,  the  people 
were  again  made  subjects  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
but  to  what  extent  they  are  loyal,  is  the  grave  question,  and  on  its 
solution  the  stability  of  the  Republic  will  depend.  Driven  as  they 
were,  from  every  position  of  any  political  importance,  and  thrown 
back  upon  their  own  vigor,  and  upon  the  internal  resources  of  the 
seceded  States,  they  cannot  fail  to  learn  the  true  value  of  the  only 
allies  among  them  that  will  serve  the  purpose  for  their  elevation. 
For  they  have  tried  the  strength  of  the  planks  of  the  platforms  upon 
which  their  hopes  .were  concentrated,  and  the  fact,  that  the  frag- 
ments lie  scattered  in  every  direction,  while  the  power  they  had  in 
others,  is  lost,  will  warn  the  South  of  the  delusion  of  the  future. 

Let  it  be  proclaimed  from  every  house-top,  and  be  re-echoed 
through  the  valleys  of  the  country,  that  the  true  friends  of  the 
Southern  States  will  labor  for  the  equalization  of  the  principles 
imposed  upon  them  by  the  incorporation  of  the  same  in  the  organic 
laws  of  every  State  of  the  Union.  Let  it  be  proclaimed  again  and 
again,  that  the  most  sacred  and  solemn  task  that  makes  up  the 
political  existence  of  the  several  States  have  been  performed  in 
the  conventions  by  the  white  man  and  the  colored  man  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  the  nation,  in  compliance  with  the  will 
of  the  people  as  expressed  by  their  Representatives  in  Congress,  and 
that  the  grand  spectacle  shall  make  up  the  new  era  in  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  Force  upon  the  country  the 
consideration  of  the  fact  that  political  equality  and  fraternity  to  exist 
in  one  section  of  the  country,  will  destroy  all  the  opposition  to 
it  in  the  others. 

The  supposition  that  the  colored  man  was  born  for  servitude 
and  to  labor  in  the  cotton  field  exploded  on  the  field  of  battle  in 
the  great  struggle  with  the  rebellion,  where  the  proof  was  exhibited 
that  bravery  is  a  natural  instinct  in  him  as  it  is  in  the  Caucasian 
race.  Hid  as  it  was  by  oppression  for  240  years  in  this  country, 


yet,  with  the  light  of  liberty  to  guide  him  through  the  darkness 
created  by  prejudice  against  the  race,  they  will  move  forward  with 
all  the  vigor  with  which  they  are  inspired  by  patriotism.  Sneer 
who  may  at  any  deformity,  whether  of  the  heel,  nose,  the  lips,  head 
or  hair  of  the  colored  people,  yet  it  will  fail  to  extinguish  the  fact 
that  they  are  framed  as  they  were  intended  to  he  by  the  God  of 
Mature,  and  that  they  are  hound  by  all  that  is  sacred  in  Heaven  to 
stand  up  in  its  defence  or  gloriously  fall  in  the  effort  to  do  their 
duty  as  Freemen  at  any  cost.  If  the  betrayal  of  freedom  will  be 
the  downfall  of  the  Republic,  let  those  who  would  restrict  the  suf- 
frage by  any  discrimination  that  would  extend  to  one  race  and  not 
to  the  others,  take  heed.  The  true  value  of  this  right  lies  in  its 
use  as  the  extinguisher  of  discontent  in  the  minds  of  the  people," 
and  makes  it  the  safeguard  of  free  institutions.  While  the  colored 
people  in  the  Northern  States,  who  form  nothing  more  than  mere 
cyphers  in  the  political  world,  the  time  is  at  hand  when  the  Empire 
State,  with  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  will  be  equal  with  Massachusetts 
in  the  elevation  of  their  sable  citizens  to  positions  of  honor  and 
trust.  .For  the  danger  that  underlies  this  subject  will  be  seen  in 
the  tendency  to  consolidate  freedom  in  the  Southern  States,  where 
their  hopes  will  be  fully  concentrated  under  leaders  who  will  be 
governed  by  circumstances  without  any  reference  to  any  sympathy 
for  the  Union.  For  in  spite  of  the  inflexible  loyalty  of  any  people, 
the  irresistible  power  of  wealth  and  education  must  be  considered 
as  the  controlling  elements  in  the  government  of  the  State  and  its 
destiny. 


CHAP.  IY. 

THE  POWER  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  OVER  THE  SEVERAL 

STATES. 

'As  the  amendment  to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  civil  rights  bill  adopted  by  Congress,  have  made  the  government 
the  custodian  of  freedom,  it  is  important  to  take  a  view  of  the 
means  that  may  be  employed  to  enable  it  to  fulfil  the  mission.  If 
it  was  possible  to  bring  out  a  decision  from  the  Supreme  Court  to 


15 

settle  the  question  in  reference  to  the  duty  of  the  States  that  are 
not  under  the  operation  of  the  military  bill,  that  would  force  them 
to  be  governed  by  its  spirit  the  same,  and  that  a  ready  compliance 
would  be  accorded  by  Maryland,  Kentucky  and  Missouri ;  then  the 
work  of  regeneration  would,  in  effect,  be  accomplished,  and  would 
serve  as  a  shield  against  the  exigency  that  would  require  means 
more  weighty  to  carry  it  out.  The  extinction  of  State  Sovereignty, 
where  it  conflicts  with  the  power  of  the  Federal  Government, 
seems  to  be  an  accomplished  fact,  or  at  any  rate  the  scope  of  the 
power  it  has  attained  is  sufficient  to  secure  compliance  in  every 
case  where  the  general  interests  of  the  country  may  require 
it.  But  to  resort  to  harsh  measures,  would  be  so  clearly 
incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the  civil  government  of  the 
States,  that  it  is  worth  while  to  examine  with  care  the  remedy  at 
hand.  The  first  object  is,  to  fix  upon  a  clear  and  comprehensive 
line  of  policy  to  protect  the  people  without  infringing  upon  their 
rights,  and  yet  this  will  depend  upon  the  vigor  of  the  Legislatures 
in  the  reorganization  of  the  judiciary  and  the  militia  of  the  State 
upon  the  basis  that  must  be  sufficiently  firm  and  complete  -to  pre- 
clude the  necessity  for  any  extra  aid  from  Congress  or  the  military 
of  the  departments.  The  stern  reality  that  exists  in  the  predomi- 
nant portion  of  the  population  in  many  of  the  localities  in  every 
one  of  the  non-reconstructed  States,  is  made  up  of  that  class  that  were 
suddenly  transformed  into  manhood,  and  is  well  calculated  to  perplex 
and  paralyze  the  judgment  of  those  who  have  either  controlled  or 
regarded  them  with  such  a  degree  of  indifference  as  to  lead  to  the 
impression  that  this  people  have  no  rights  that  white  men  are 
bound  to  respect.  To  recognize  and  surrender  to  the  new  element 
in  the  body  politic  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  is  the  true  test  of 
the  loyalty  upon  which  the  strength  of  the  country  will  depend. 
The  rapid  .advance  that  has  been  made  up  to  this  line  of  duty  by 
eminent  men  of  the  two  sections,  is  the  most  sublime  aspect  that 
the  new  order  of  things  could  present,  and  to  cherish  the  principles 
by  which  they  are  governed  is  essential  to  the  success  of  the  work 
that-  must  be  performed  to  overcome  all  antagonism  that  would 
impede  the  union  between  the  two  people. 

But  to  overcome  the  difficulties  that  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
measures  necessary  to  create  a  regular  system  for  the  operation  of  the 
judiciary  and  for  the  administration  of  equal  and  exact  justice  to  all, 


16 

is  no  ordinary  task,  for  it  is  the  success  of  that  object  that  will  relieve 
the  military  of  the  duty  imposed  upon  it  by  the  present  disordered 
condition  of  things.  It  is  this  stream  that  flows  through  all  civil- 
ized communities,  and  takes  its  source  from  Divine  teaching  for  the 
control  of  the  moral  government  of  man,  and  its  pollution  from 
whatever  cause  will  lead  to  anarchy  and  demoralization.  No  class 
of  people  could  ever  be  exposed  to  greater  danger  from  it  than  the 
freedmen,  who  may  become  the  victims  of  imposition  with  no  other 
dependence  than  the  court  of  justice  which  may  be  to  them  a  source 
of  injustice  for  years  to  come,  from  those  who  may  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  Freedom.  For  whether  situated  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  large  communities,  or  in  the  remote  localities  in 
the  agricultural  districts,  justice  is  due  to  all,  from  the  highest  to 
the  humblest.  To  secure  this  blessing,  it  is  within  the  power  of  the 
National  Government  to  infuse  its  spirit  into  the  Legislatures,  and 
to  watch  over  the  people  until  the  judicial  system  shall  attain  the 
vigor  that  will  make  it  equal  to  the  duty  that  lies  before  it.  To 
organize  the  militia  of  the  several  States  and  bring  it  up  to  the 
perfection  that  will  make  it  equal  to  any  emergency,  is  the  most 
serious  part  of  the  work,  and  will  be  fully  appreciated  by  the 
South  and  the  Federal  Government.  Any  reluctance  to  approach  it 
will  only  indicate  the  want  of  information  in  reference  to  the  vital 
principles  the  nation  must  inculcate  in  the  public  mind  by  the 
prompting  of  the  laws  of  self-preservation.  The  attempt  to  shun  this 
duty  will  not  avail  or  relieve  it  from  the  responsibility  it  has  as- 
sumed in  instituting  free  Government,  which  points  to  the  future 
when  the  battalions  of  infantry,  the  squadrons  of  cavalry  and  the 
batteries  of  artillery  will  exist  and  be  governed  by  the  same  rules 
and  regulations  for  all,  and.  with  no  special  privilege  for  any.  The 
stern  necessity  that  demands  it  can  only  be  understood  by  keeping 
in  view  the  fact  that  all  proscription  by  the  action  of  the  Federal 
Government  will  be  at  an  end.  The  right  to  the  spur  was  won 
during  the  rebellion,  but  not  awarded  to  any  of  those  who  were 
considered  worthy  of  it  by  some  of  the  disciples  of  West  Point  and 
others  high  in  rank  in  the  army.  But  the  true  policy  of  the  nation 
will  be  fully  developed  in  carrying  out  the  plan  for  the  organization 
of  the  national  guard,  and  will  test  the  spirit  that  controls  its  efforts 
to  break  down  caste  in  the  United  States.  It  will  present  the 
grandest  spectacle  of  the  time  when  the  million  of  sable  sentinels  of 


17 

Freedom  will  watch  over  the  Goddess  of  Liberty  and  at  the  same 
time  aid  in  maintaining  the  peace  of  the  country  by  their  neutrality. 
It  is  to  carry  this,  the  last  entrenchment  of  the  prejudice  of  the 
country,  that  the  rally  will  be  made  to  secure  the  triumph  that  will 
constitute  them  the  custodians  of  Freedom,  therefore,  let  the  pur- 
pose be  proclaimed  far  and  near,  that  the  exercise  of  this  right  by 
all  freemen  will  be  the  finality  of  the  struggle  to  break  down  the 
barrier  to  their  elevation. 


CHAP.   Y. 
THE  DUTY  OF  THE  FKEEDMEN  IN  THE  SOUTHERN  STATES.  •   . 

While  it  is  proper  and  right  that  all  the  privileges  belonging  to 
the  colored  people  should  be  presented  to  the  country  in  the  strongest 
light,  and  in  every  phase  of  the  transition  in  which  they  must  be 
seen,  yet,  there  is  an  important  duty  connected  with  the  subject 
that  should  be  considered  with  a  view  to  make  some  reference  to 
the  paramount  object  that  lies  before  them  in  the  relations  they  are 
called  upon  to  sustain  to  the  community  at  large.  The  sudden 
transformation,  effecting  the  social  condition  of  four  millions  of  peo- 
ple, and  the  chaos  resulting  from  the  breaking  up  of  their  relations 
with  the  soil,  is  sufficiently  grave  to  justify  the  attention  that  will 
be  devoted  to  it  under  the  caption  selected  for  that  purpose.  There 
would  be  less  cause  for  apprehension  at  this  time,  if  the  people  were 
actuated  by  the  disposition  to  follow  the  demands  of  justice  in  ref- 
erence to  the  destiny  of  the  colored  people  in  this  country,  but  the 
fact  that  the  nation  as  governed  by  the  force  of  circumstances  in  all 
things  that  make  up  its  policy  on  the  subject  of  Freedom,  cannot 
but  create  the  impression  that  they  may  stop  short  of  the  line  of  duty 
to  their  posterity. 

The  first  part  of  the  work  before  the  colored  man,  is  to  make  such 
an  impression  upon  the  minds  of  the  American  people  as  will  create 
the  weight  he  will  employ  to  control  the  sentiments  of  the  public. 
The  half  and  half  measures  by  which  the  nation  entered  into  the 
design  to  settle' the  suffrage  question,  was  paralyzed  by  rejecting  the 
constitutional  amendment  by  the  States  it  was  intended  to  affect, 


18 

and  which,  if  adopted,  could  not  but  extinguish  the  only  ray  of  light 
in  the  political  horizon  of  the  colored  people.  It  was  an  attempt  to 
abandon  coercion  and  impose  it  upon  the  people  to  legislate  the 
principle  into  existence  for  the  relief  of  the  nation  from  the  most 
important  duty  that  could  devolve  upon  it  by  the  demands  of  free- 
dom and  self-protection.  Its  acceptance  by  the  legislatures  of  the 
Loyal  States  made  up  for  the  time  the  policy  they  were  ready  to 
adopt  and  extinguish  the  spark  of  liberty,  but  it  was  rekindled  by 
those  who  were  opposed  to  emancipation,  and  to  the  military 
necessity  that  gave  it  an  existence. 

The  principles  that  were  concealed  under  the  assumed  magnan- 
imity, were  not  only  void  of  any  national  dignity  from  the  want 
of  ingenuousness,  but  it  was  only  useful  as  a  measure  for  self-stultifi- 
cation by  its  adoption. 

It  was  the  impression  that  the  Civil  Rights  bill  aimed  at  the 
elevation  of  the  citizens  of  all  the  States  to  the  level  where  they 
would  be  recognized  as  the  custodians  of  freedom,  under  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  and  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
legislatures  of  the  several  States.  This  must  either  be  the  result  of 
reconstruction,  or  the  germ  of  future  commotion  between  the  two 
sections  of  the  country.  To  make  a  clear  discrimination  between 
the  duty  that  rightfully  belongs  to  the  several  States,  and  the  relations 
of  the  masses  to  the  Union,  is  a  delicate  task,  and  yet  it  must  be  per- 
formed with  a  view  to  fix  their  allegiance  without  any  dependence 
upon  mere  party  machinery  for  its  existence,  for  whatever  may  be  the 
danger  of  internal  war,  it  will  only  come  from  this  source,  although 
there  need  be  no  apprehension  if  the  power  necessary  for  the  regu- 
lation of  civil  government  could  be  judiciously  directed  with  the 
concurrent  efforts  of  influential  minds  of  all  shades  of  opinion.  It 
would  afford  a  far  better  field  for  the  developement  of  public  senti- 
ment, which,  if  concealed  at  this  juncture,  may  show  itself  in  the 
future,  with  a  degree  of  violence  that  may  be  strong  enough  to 
neutralize  the  entire  work  of  reconstruction,  for,  if  it  was  possible 
to  punish  any  portion  of  the  people  for  treason  against  the  United 
States,  those  who  would  be  the  subjects  of  judicial  proceedings 
should  be  known,  and  all  others  should  or  may  be  exempt  from  the 
disabilities.  But  under  the  present  plan  of  proceedure  there 
seems  to  be  chances  for  committing  very  grave  mistakes  by  the 
exercise  of  discretionary  power  by  subordinate  officials,  who  may 


19 

be  very  honest  in  their  intentions,  and  jet,  from  mere  presumption, 
they  may  proscribe  and  inflict  punishment,  by  the  adoption  of 
measures  that  should  only  be  the  result  of  the  decision  of  a 
regular  tribunal.  But  while  the  oath  of  allegience  to  the 
Government  may  be  an  important  relief  to  those  who  may 
comply  with  its  requirements,  it  will  not  shield  those  who  may 
refrain  from  availing  themselves  of  its  benefits,  from  any  scru- 
ples they  may  have  as  ex-secessionists.  But  is  it  right  to  put  in 
any  plea  for  them  as  citizens  of  the  United  States,  that  it  may  be 
seen  how  far  all  loyal  men  may  respect  them  in  their  situation  ?  It 
is  to  make  some  use  of  this  class  why  a  regular  system  to 'organize 
civil  government  should  be  adopted  to  infuse  the  same  degree  of 
vitality  into  the  minds  of  the  people  in  each  of  the  unreconstructed 
States,  as  will  enable  them  to  move  on  in  the  direct  line  of  action 
in  the  conventions  and  legislatures,  as  will  be  similar  in  every  case 
where  the  purpose  is  to  consolidate  and  build  up  such  principles  for 
the  commonwealth  as  will  preclude  the  antagonism  that  would 
otherwise  exist,  by  excluding  one  class  of  citizens  from  the  enjoy- 
ment of  privileges  that  were  exercised  by  the  other. 

The  position  of  the  colored  people  as  supporters  of  the  work  of 
reconstruction,  seems  to  be  mixed  up  with  so  many  extraneous  ideas 
that  the  efforts  to  define  and  give  them  a  direction  that  will  be 
more  comprehensive,  is  essential  and  paramount  as  their  success  will 
depend  upon  it ;  for  however  useful  they  may  have  been  to  the 
Union  cause  during  the  rebellion,  and  the  fact  that  the  spirit  of  the 
principles  that  they  are  called  upon  to  support  at  the  ballot  box, 
takes  its  source  from  the  same  necessity,  and  yet  the  social  status 
of  this  people  is  the  same  in  either  section  of  the  country.  From 
this  standpoint  the  question  must  occur,  that  the  answer  may  show 
how  far  the  people  will  be  prepared  to  realize  the  danger  that 
would  result  from  the  attempt  to  use  the  colored  man  as  a  mere 
straw  upon  the  political  surface  for  the  benefit  of  the  Union,  at  the 
expense  of  his  interest  in  the  Southern  States. 

Will  this  nation  take  heed  from  the  fatal  mistake  committed  by 
the  sacrifice  of  the  great  dogma  that  was  proclaimed  to  the  world 
in  1776,  that  "  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,"  while  the  conven- 
tion of  1787  recognized  property  in  man  and  made  it  the  germ  of 
the  rebellion  ?  The  want  of  a  holy  purpose  in  the  policy  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  on  the  subject  of  Equal  Liberty 


20 

for  all,  seems  to  be  very  seriously  felt  in  all  its  measures,  and  if  the 
disposition  to  shun  the  responsibility  of  the  crisis  should  be  mani- 
fested as  it  was  in  the  adjustment  at  that  time,  it  will  be  impossible 
to  maintain  the  peace  of  the  Republic. 

The  introduction  of  the  necessary  measures  for  the  guidance  of 
the  colored  people  in  the  midst  of  the  transition  and  the  vigor  with 
which  the  developments  will  be  made,  will  be  sufficient  to  give  all 
the  animation  they  may  require  to  enable  them  to  make  the  impres- 
sion that  with  them  freedom  is  sacred.  To  date  the  rights  of  these 
people  as  citizens  of  this  country  from  the  issuing  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  emancipation,  would  be  simply  a  subterfuge  and  an  indignity, 
and  would  indicate  the  deceptive  intent  of  those  who  are  only  half-way 
men,  and  who  will  stop  short  in  the  midst  of  the  work,  at  the  first  mo- 
ment that  will  serve  as  the  opportunity.  The  fact  that  there  should  be 
no  cause  for  any  hostility  between  the  two  people  in  the  Southern 
States,  ought  to  be  clearly  seen,  and  every  measure  resorted  to  to 
devise  the  means  to  subdue  the  prejudices  by  which  they  are  sepa- 
rated from  each  other.  To  accomplish  this  vital  object,  all  the  sac- 
rifices that  can  be  made  without  debasing  the  dignity  of  the  man, 
or  endangering  the  holy  cause,  must  be  resorted  to  for  that  purpose. 
The  view  of  the  grand  flank  movement  upon  the  entire  line  of  the 
opponents  of  Freedom  from  the  point  contemplated,  will  not  only 
be  highly  important  to  the  colored  people,  but  the  salvation  of  the 
Southern  States  will  depend  upon  its  success.  It  will  give  a  degree 
of  force  to  the  energies  of  that  section  of  the  country,  far  greater 
than  it  has  ever  had,  and  create  the  means  for  self-dependence  to 
the  extent  that  will  be  fully  sustained  by  the  development  of  its 
resources.  Mixed  up  as  this  irresistible  purpose  is  with  the  existence 
of  those  who  now  lie  postrate  by  the  power  that  extinguished  the 
rebellion,  they  cannot  but  see  in  it  the  means  of  the  deliverance 
they  must  seek  in  the  alliance  of  the  people  of  the  South.  There- 
fore, to  drive  out  the  Freedmen  is  an  impossibility,  for  they  were 
planted  among  the  people  by  the  laws  that  gave  the  power  to  the 
peculiar  institution,  and  by  their  natural  rights,  and  owing  allegi- 
ance to  no  other  country  they  are  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  any  hostile  design  carried  into  operation  against  them,  could 
not  fail  to  recoil  upon  the  nation. 

The  several  congresses  held  by  the  people  of  the  Southern  States, 
from  time  to  time,  some  years  before  they  seceded,  it  is  known  that 


21 

the  labor  question  was  the  most  perplexing  to  their  public  men,  and 
whatever  power  they  may  possess  to  carry  on  the  industry  of  the 
country  in  the  future,  the  very  first  and  the  main  object  will  be  to 
secure  the  aid  of  the  Freedmen  as  a  class  that  they  never  will  sup- 
plant. It  is  not  only  necessary  to  shield  them  from  the  life  and 
death  struggle  that  would  follow  from  any  attempt  to  drive  them 
out,  but  it  is  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  Eepublic.  The 
means  by  which  the  solution  of  the  grand  problem  will  be  reached 
to  indicate  the  fraternal  relations  of  the  people  to  each  other,  will 
be  clearly  manifested  by  touching  the  leading  points  of  the  plan 
of  reconstruction. 

The  importance  of  a  definite  conception  of  the  work  as  it  is,  should 
be  understood  by  colored  men  to  enable  them  to  perform  their  duty 
to  the  country  with  all  the  intelligence  necessary  to  show  the  spirit 
with  which  they  will  be  governed  as  supporters  of  the  Union,  and  it 
can  not  be  too  carefully  considered,  for  they  must  have  a  position 
strong  enough  to  guard  against  any  invasion  of  their  rights.  For 
whatever  may  be  the  views  of  others  in  reference  to  reconstruction, 
with  the  colored  people  their  plan  must  be  fixed  in  the  supervision  of 
the  nation  which  would  not  only  be  extended  to  the  adoption  of 
the  constitution  by  the  several  States  and  the  organization  of  the 
Legislatures,  but  it  will  include  civil  Government  and  the  estab- 
lishing of  an  effective  police  system,  and  the  organization  and  the 
equipment  of  the  militia  free  from  all  proscription,  and  thereby  put 
every  branch  in  a  complete  working  order  before  the  surrender  to 
the  people  of  the  power  assumed  during  the  war  in  behalf  of  the 
Republic.  It  will  be  the  only  effective  protection  against  mere 
paper  concessions  in  behalf  of  Freedom,  and  will  neutralize  the  fa- 
cilities to  cheat  at  the  ballot  box  and  paralyze  the  entire  labor  of 
the  statesmen  with  the  sacrifices  made  upon  the  field  of  battle,  as 
would  be  the  case  as  soon  as  those  who  are  now  in  the  back  ground 
shall  have  come  to  the  front. 

It  is  to  guard  against  the  provocation  that  would  excite  them  to 
any  re-actionary  measure,  either  against  Freedom  or  the  Policy  of 
the  Government,  why  the  suggestion  is  made  to  commit  them  to  the 
work  of  reconstruction,  which,  if  carried  out  under  its  guidance, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  principles  that  may  be  embodied  in  a 
general  plan  to  be  followed  by  the  conventions  and  the  legislatures 
of  the  several  States,  it  could  not  be  regarded  as  the  triumph  of  one 


22 

party  over  the  other,  which  in  either  case,  may  carry  with  it  a  pro- 
scription that  would  he  felt  "by  the  minority  with  a  degree  of  keen- 
ness that  would  necessarily  engender  antagonism.  The  object  is 
to  extinguish  the  fire  of  Secession,  and  to  reconstruct  society  with  the 
new  materials,  with  a  view  to  its  permanency  by  the  removal  of  the 
volcanic  elements  that  underlie  the  strata  of  the  work  of  the  poli- 
tician who  labors  with  no  ambition  to  reach  the  elevation  of  the 
statesman.  Therefore,  it  is  not  the  special  duty  of  the  colored  man 
to  study  the  difference  and  learn  something  of  the  seriousness  of  the 
danger  that  should  be  avoided  if  possible,  but  it  is  for  the  entire 
people  of  this  country,  who  will  control  its  destiny  at  the  ballot  box, 
that  must  go  into  it  with  a  clearness  of  conception  far  greater  than 
they  have  evinced  up  to  the  present  time. 

Those  who  are  in  favor  of  peace,  let  them  show  their  plan  and 
the  method  by  which  they  will  work  to  promote  it.  For  the  public 
men  who  have  no  other  stock  in  trade  than  the  force  of  the  oppo- 
sition .they  can  array  against  each  other,  by  exciting  the  feelings  of 
the  masses  without  having  any  principles  to  inculcate  to  advance  the 
general  interest  of  the  State  or  the  Nation,  will  never  make  anything 
else  of  themselves  but  mere  agitators.  It  is  the  category  that  every 
intelligent  colored  man  should  avoid,  and  if  they  would  be  useful 
to  this  generation,  let  them  study  the  means,  and  learn  the  true 
value  of  political  economy  as  a  science,  that  they  may  labor  with 
credit  to  the  race  and  for  the  good  of  the  country.  But  while  it  is 
the  duty  of  all  good  Citizens  to  cultivate  the  means  to  live  in  peace 
with  each  other,  and  only  learn  the  art  of  war  for  the  protection 
of  Freedom  or  the  defence  of  the  country,  yet  in  case  of  any  attack 
on  either  from  any  scource,  let  it  be  the  religious  duty  of  every  col- 
ored man  to  fill  his  place  in  the  rank  of  his  regiment,  and  be  ready 
to  move  forward  at  the  command  and  strike  with  all  the  vigor  that 
God  and  nature  may  supply  to  carry  on  the  sacred  work. 


23 
CHAP.  VI. 

THE  PLAN  TO  RESTORE  HARMONY  BETWEEN  THE  TWO  RACES  IN  THE 
SOUTHERN  STATES,  AND  FOR  SOCIAL  IMPROVEMENT  ON  THE  BASIS 
OF  AGRICULTURE. 

% 

The  future  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the  Southern  States,  will 
present  no  subject  that  will  be  more  important  t6  the  happiness  of 
the  people,  than  the  science  of  agriculture,  whether  considered  as 
the  field  for  speculation,  or  for  the  elevation  of  the  race  that  stood 
before  the  nation  as  the  hewers  of  wood  and  the  drawers  of  water. 
Its  grandeur  will  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  polluted  stream  of 
politics  will  be  subordinate  to  it  in  every  phase,  which  enable  them 
to  realize  the  power  it  will  exert  to  control  the  efforts  to  consolidate 
freedom,  and  restore  the  relations  of  the  freedmen  to  the  soil  as  the 
agricultural  class.  The  antagonism  that  has  taken  such  a  wide 
range  between  capital  and  labor  in  this  country,  requires  a  solution 
that  will  lead  to  a  reciprocity  of  interests,  that  will  be  more  perma- 
nent, at  the  same  time  have  the  inherent  means  to  regulate  itself 
without  being  exposed  to  the  discordancy  that  effects,  to  a  greater 
or  less  degree,  the  great  interests  of  the  manufactories  of  the  New 
England  States  and  elsewhere;  for,  notwithstanding  the  redun- 
dant population  which  makes  up  the  masses  in  all  the  cities, 
and  the  constant  flow  of  the  tide  of  emigration  from  Europe,  yet 
the  struggle  continues  under  the  various  organizations  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  mutual  relations  that  should  be  sustained  between 
the  employers  and  the  employees. 

But  in  turning  to  the  Southern  States,  where  the  principle  of 
the  social  revolution  will  prevail,  it  is  necessary  to  examine  the 
field  that  the  future  of  the  two  races  will  present  not  only  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States ;  but  with  the  view  to  make  it  equally 
as  useful  to  the  Brazilian  Empire,  as  to  the  colonies  of  Spain,  where 
the  transition  from  'slavery  to  freedom  will  follow  the  light  kindled 
in  this  country.  For  whatever  may  be  said  or  written  in  re- 
ference to  the  regulation  of  labor,  by  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, in  the  sense  in  which  it  may  be  considered  in  large  com- 
munities, and  in  the  agricultural  regions  in  the  Eastern,  Northern 
or  Western  States,  yet  nothing  would  be  more  useless  to  the  freed- 
men than  the  theory  of  the  philosophers  of  the  day,  who,  with  their 


24 

ancient  ideas,  which  leads  them  to  the  conclusion  that  these  people 
will  be  safe  as  tenants-at-will,  and  that  you  must  "  let  them  alone 
to  root  or  die."  But  while  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  what  a  large 
portion  of  the  freedrnen  will,  by  their  industry,  become  free-holders 
under  the  usual  process  of  the  law  of  trade,  nevertheless,  as  the 
relations  between  them  and  the  soil  were  broken  up  by  the  sov- 
ereignty incidental  in  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and 
exercised  to  meet  the  great  contingency  of  the  war,  it  is  important 
that  it  should  in  some  way  guard  against  the  disorder  that  would 
follow  from  the  surrender  to  the  respective  States  of  the  charge  it 
assumed  for  their  protection ;  for  it  is  not  the  freedmen  alone  that 
requires  the  protection,  but  it  is  a  society,  made  up  as  it  is  of  the 
incongruities,  which  is  the  result  of  the  education  which  carries 
with  it  no  power  of  cohesion. 

To  leave  the  people  in  such  a  situation  to  depend  upon  what 
may  be  called  the  drifting  policy,  to  restore  every  thing  to  their 
normal  condition  as  indicated  by  the  class  of  men  who  have  nothing 
to  suggest,  would  be  a  calamity  equal  in  its  tendency  to  the  defeats 
they  suffered  upon  the  battle  field,  inasmuch  as  it  would  leave 
them  to  struggle  with  the  chaotic  elements  of  the  war,  that  were 
created  to  a  very  great  extent  by  the  operations  carried  on  in  behalf 
of  the  United  States.  To  teach  all  classes  of  the  people  how  to  live 
for  the  mutual  benefit  of  society  under  the  present  condition  of 
things,  is  a  necessity  that  will  not  admit  of  any  delay  by  those  who 
feel  the  force  of  the  exigency  to  the  extent  that  will  urge  them  on 
in  the  efforts  to  comply  with  its  demands  as  benefactors  of  that  por- 
tion of  this  country  that  has  experienced  to  a  limited  degree  the 
benign  influence  of  civilization,  or  the  blessings  of  Republican  Insti- 
tutions. In  this  connection,  the  demoralization  of  the  financial  re- 
sources of  the  country  must  be  considered,  to  ascertain  the  extent 
of  the  necessity  for  national  aid  to  the  people,  to  enable  them  to  re- 
cuperate from  the  prostration  under  which  they  are  suffering,  with- 
out making  any  sacrifices  of  their  lands,  and  thereby  give  the  spec- 
ulators the  advantages  that  should  only  be  enjoyed  by  those  who 
may  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  design  to  make  agriculture  the  basis 
of  elevation  in  the  Southern  States. 

The  despondency  in  the  minds  of  some  of  the  people  at  this  junc- 
ture, may  afford  rare  opportunities  to  the  modern  Shylocks  to  pur- 
chase lands  from  those  who  in  too  many  instances,  will  be  ready  to 


25 

eat  up  all  that  they  may  have,  and  shut  themselves  out  for  all  time 
to  come  from  the  high  position  they  could  occupy  among  the  plan- 
ters under  the  new  system  of  support  to  agricultural  developments. 
But  as  useful  as  private  capital  may  be  to  the  commercial  world, 
yet  it  would  be  wholly  inadequate  to  meet  the  demands  necessary 
to  give  a  vitality  to  agricultural  interest  equal  to  the  requirements 
of  that  great  branch  of  industry.  From  this  view  of  the  subject, 
the  question  that  must  recur  and  press  itself  upon  the  attention  of 
the  political  economists,  is, will  it  be  the  duty  of  the  nation  to  advance 
as  a  loan  the  sum  of  $50,000,000,  to  be  increased  to  $100,000,000  if 
necessary,  for  the  relief  of  the  planters  in  the  non-reconstructed  States, 
upon  the  condition  herein  stated  ?  The  $40,000,000  of  the  surplus 
revenue  deposited  with  the  several  States  some  years  since,  was 
thrown  away  in  comparison  with  the  great  results  that  would  follow 
from  the  application  of  the  proposed  loan,  by  which  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  could  be  placed  in  the  position  to  realize  the 
leading  objects  contemplated  by  the  Statesmen  in  their  reflections 
upon  the  felicity  under  the  Empire  they  aimed  to  establish  in  that 
section. 

The  V  amour  propre  that  may  develop  itself  from  the  first  im- 
pression that  may  be  created  in  the  minds  of  those  who  may  be  strug- 
gling with  their  early  convictions,  would  to  some  extent  paralyze  the 
principles  that  underlie  the  plan  for  national  aid,  but  the  fact  that  there 
must  be  some  means  to  overcome  sectional  prejudices,  and  fire  the 
fraternal  feelings  of  the  people  of  the  two  sections  of  the  country 
and  from  the  force  of  its  application  sway  their  judgment  in  the  right 
direction.  The  thirty  years'  training  that  was  necessary  to  bring 
them  up  to  the  labor  they  have  undergone  during  the  last  six  years 
will  become  obsolete  from  the  rapidity  with  which  they  will  advance 
in  the  new  ideas  which  leads  to  peace  and  prosperity,  instead  of 
strife  and  rapine.  The  people  will  learn  something  from  the  sacri- 
fices made  by  the  South  when  considered  in  the  light  in  which  they 
can  be  seen  and  will  show  that  all  the  materials  to  establish  Free- 
dom in  this  country  were  furnished  from  that  section,  and  at  the 
cost  of  more  than  $1,200,000,000  of  dollars  and  add  to  this  sum 
$3,000,000,000  lost  by  investments  made  in  Confederate  Bonds  and 
$4,200,000,000  by  the  depositors  of  greenbacks  issued  during  the  war, 
and  the  aggregate  will  be  fully  equal  to  the  expenditure  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States.  What  will  they  receive  in  return  for  the 


26 

vast  outlay,  except  from  the  increase  in  the  value  of  the  lands  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question  lies  far  deeper  than  can  be  imagined  by 
many  of  the  statesmen  who  only  see  everything  from  the  surface. 
But,  view  it  as  you  may,  it  is  the  Pandora  box  of  Secession,  and  if  it 
should  be  opened,  the  agitation  for  compensation  would  be  the  first 
fruit  of  the  poison  'that  it  would  emit. 

But  as  the  connecting  link  between  the  two  races  must  depend 
upon  the  agricultural  developments  as  the  life  of  the  industry  of 
the  future,  it  demands  an  elaborate  exposition  to  illuminate  as  far 
as  possible  the  minds  of  those  who  are  satisfied  to  follow  the  con- 
dition of  things  under  which  the  colored  people  have  struggled 
since  emancipation  in  the  State  of  New  York  and  elsewhere  in  the 
Northern  States.  For  while  the  impression  exists  in  the  public 
mind,  that  they  must  necessarily  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  labor  in 
common  with  the  dominant  class  in  this  section  of  the  country,  yet, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  combination  against  them  is  carried  to 
the  extent  where  nothing  is  seen  of  them  as  mechanics,  it  ought  to 
be  sufficient  to  dispel  the  delusion  that  must  be  overcome  to  open 
the  way  for  the  acceptance  of  the  principles  that  will  be  submitted 
to  the  nation  in  their  behalf.  If  from  that  cause  and  their  rigid  ex- 
clusion from  all  the  avenues  of  general  industry  as  opened  to  others, 
the  degradation  of  this  people  can  be  clearly  traced,  then  the  case 
will  be  made  up  in  accordance  with  the  facts,  which  shows,  that 
notwithstanding  the  sympathy  and  the  liberality  extended  to  them 
in  connection  with  their  equality  before  the  law,  their  condition  is 
not  far  removed  from  that  of  servitude ! 

With  all  the  gratitude  that  should  be  manifested  by  them  for 
the  sympathy  of  those  who  are  opposed  to  oppression,  yet  the 
colored  people  must  have  something  more  substantial  to  stand  upon 
than  what  they  have  realized  from  freedom  in  the  State  of  New 
York  or  elsewhere  in  any  of  the  free  States,  where  they  are  the 
victims  of  an  intolerable  proscription  as  a  powerless  minority. 
Trained  up  as  they  are  in  the  school  of  experience,  with  no  affinity 
to  the  community  at  large,  they  are  fully  prepared  to  turn  their 
faces  southward  to  seek  the  means  where  they  may  establish  for 
themselves  and  their  posterity  the  system  of  employment  by  which 
they  will  be  able  to  exclude  themselves  from  poverty  by  inculcating 
the  habits  of  industry  and  soberness.  In  the  field  of  husbandry 
proscription  will  cease  to  harrass  those  through  whose  labor  the 


27 

development  of  the  resources  of  the  soil  will  depend,  and  open  to 
them  the  avenues  for  social  improvement  in  all  the  departments 
where  the  colored  man  will  be  measured  in  the  circle  of  social  ele- 
vation according  to  the  standard  of  the  mind  by  which  the  intelli- 
gent community  will  be  governed. 

t 

THE  BASIS  OF  THE  UNION  BETWEEN  THE  Two  RACES. 

Having  exhausted  the  general  principles  that  underlie  the  lead- 
ing features  of  the  several  subjects  that  involves  the  destiny  of  the 
colored  people  in  this  country,  let  the  proposition  emanating  from 
them  be  submitted  to  the  statesmen  and  the  philanthropists  that 
they  may  examine  the  basis  upon  which  the  happiness  of  the  two 
races  may  be^  fully  established  under  the  guidance  of  the  Unseen 
Hand  that  controls  the  existence  of  nations  and  the  human  family 
without  any  aid. 

The  following  will  be  considered  as  the  protocol,  with  the  points 
to  indicate  with  some  clearness  the  subject  they  will  be  called  upon 
to  give  their  support  in  behalf  of  posterity  and  the  welfare  of  the 
nation. 

1st.  Let  the  appeal  be  made  to  every  planter  in  the  non-recon- 
structed States  to  grant  alotments  of  not  more  than  ten  (10)  acres 
to  constitute  a  homestead  for  every  family  on  the  plantations  where 
they  were  formerly  held,  and  the  same,  with  the  right  in  fee,  when 
acquired  as  herein  provided,  will  exist  in  the  family  and  their  pos- 
terity forever,  and  will  be  exempt  from  all  the  disabilities,  of  every 
nature,  by  which  the  title  of  the  lands  could  in  any  way  be  alienated 
under  any  process  resulting  from  the  decision  of  any  court  of  law,  or 
otherwise. 

2d.  As  the  object  is  to  restore  the  relations  of  the  freedmen  to 
the  soil  as  the  agricultural  class,  and  establish  them  in  the  position 
that  will  be  permanent,  and  with  the  means  to  be  useful  among  the 
planters,  it  is  essential  that  they  should  labor  for  those  who  may 
extend  the  concession  that  will  give  to  every  family  on  any  planta- 
tion a  freehold  interest  in  the  land  they  may  occupy,  therefore  let 
them  render  service  under  a  mutual  contract,  in  lieu  of  cash  pay- 
ment for  the  purchase. 

The  guardian  of  the  nation  as  assumed  over  this  people,  imposes 
upon  it  the  responsibility  of  making  the  necessary  provisions  to 


28 

surrender  it  to  the  keeping  of  the  States  respectively,  that  their 
protection  may  become  the  duty  of  citizens  at  large  to  each  other. 
For  nothing  would  tend  to  demoralize  the  two  races  to  a  greater 
degree,  than  to  throw  them  into  a  sudden  contact  without  any  fixed 
principles  to  govern  them  in  cases  where  the  struggle  for  the  su- 
premacy would  form  any  part  of  the  antagonism  that  would  exist 
from  the  want  of  the  regulations  that  should  clearly  point  out  the 
fraternal  duty  imposed  upon  them  by  the  new  relation  in  which 
they  will  stand  to  each  other. 

3d.  To  infuse  into  the  agricultural  interest  in  the  Southern 
States  the  necessary  vigor,  and  enable  the  people  to  re-establish 
their  prosperity  within  the  limits  of  the  time  they  were  engaged  in 
destroying  it,  and  reach  a  higher  position  than  they  c4uld  possibly 
attain  by  the  ordinary  means  of  recuperation,  it  is  proper  to  extend 
to  those  who  may  have  the  disposition  to  rise  above  their  present 
condition,  such  relief  from  the  national  treasury  as  may  be  necessary 
to  enable  such  persons  to  cultivate  the  land,  and  give  employment 
to  the  freedmen  as  occupants  of  grants  made  to  them  by  virtue  of 
the  obligation  that  will  be  assumed  in  every  case  where  the  aid  is 
extended. 

Yiewing  it  as  the  imperative  duty  of  the  people  of  the  loyal 
States  to  take  up  the  subject  with  sufficient  vigor  to  show  its  econo- 
my when  considered  from  the  national  standpoint  from  which  it 
will  be  seen  by  the  statesmen  who  feel  the  gravity  of  the  proposi- 
tion to  supply  homes  for  4,000,000  of  persons  made  free  by  virtue 
of  the  actions  of  the  Federal  Government,  it  is  essential  that  the 
demand  should  be  made  upon  the  nation  for  50,000,000  of  dollars 
to  carry  out  the  plan  of  restoration  and  recuperation.  It  contem- 
plates no  discrimination  on  account  of  the  political  proclivities  oi 
any  who  may  make  the  demand  for  relief,  as  the  object  is  to  seek 
the  same  liberality  for  the  Freedmen  on  the  plantations,  who,  from 
the  relations  they  will  sustain  as  citizens,  and  as  cultivators  of  the 
soil,  shall  be  free  to  follow  their  convictions  without  offending  any 
one  in  the  community. 

4th.  The  organization  of  a  Bureau  of  Agriculture  in  each  of  the 
several  States  by  the  legislatures,  will  give  the  people  control  of  the 
measures  by  which  homesteads  should  be  arranged  on  the  planta- 
tions where  the  owners  will  make  the  concession  a  voluntary  act, 


29 

with  the  co-operation  of  the  Commissioners  of  Freedmen  who  would 
represent  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  the  performance 
of  the  duty  that  would  be  required  to  restore  these  people  and  secure 
certificates  of  title  for  every  homestead  and  register  the  same  in 
the  county  where  located,  which  will  constitute  a  deed  of  con- 
veyance for  all  time  to  come.  The  purpose  is  to  secure  by  legisla- 
tion the  exemption  for  the  planters,  and  protect  them  to  the  extent 
required  for  the  freedmen  and  keep  them  and  their  descendants 
together,  and  thereby  afford  the  opportunity  to  trace  the  sublimity 
of  the  transition  and  the  union  between  the  two  races  for  the  gene- 
rations to  come,  who  will  see  in  the  spectacle  the  glorious  results  of 
the  efforts  to  unite  them  through  the  industry  of  the  country,  and 
realize  in  the  United  States  in  a  higher  degree  the  blessings  that 
were  sought  for  by  Solon  in  behalf  of  the  Athenians* 

To  perpetuate  the  happiness  of  the  people  of  the  agricultural 
districts  as  far  as  human  laws  can  promote  it,  it  should  not  be  law- 
ful to  issue  any  writ  of  attachment,  excepting  against  the  product  of 
the  plantations,  and  only  so  far  as  it  may  affect  the  planter  in  his 
special  interest,  and  thereby  protect  the  lien  of  the  freedmen  from 
the  knavery  that  could  be  practiced  upon  them.  If  the  loan  is  ex- 
tended and  judiciously  employed  in  the  improvement  and  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  land,  with  the  use  of  the  same  for  five  years  with- 
out any  interest,  it  would  give  all  the  support  that  could  be  required 
for  the  accomplishment  of  the  grand  object  contemplated  by  the 
demand  upon  the  nation  for  .that  purpose. 

In  the  purchase  of  lands  for  the  freedmen  the  limit  for  pay- 
ment should  be  extended  to  five  years  without  any  interest,  which 
will  enable  them  to  relieve  themselves  of  all  incumbrances  by  the 
expiration  of  the  time  to  refund  the  national  loan,  which  will  leave 
the  two  people  in  the  condition  to  promote  their  prosperity  and 
secure  a  lasting  inheritance  for  their  posterity,  through  the  mag- 
nanimity by  which  the  Federal  Government  will  be  prompted  to 
come  to  the  rescue. 

5th.  Brings  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  the  consideration 
of  another  grave  subject,  and  in  which  the  claims  of  the  widows  and 
the  orphans  in  the  Southern  States,  upon  whom  the  weight  of  the  war 
has  fallen  with  an  irresistable  force,  and  leaving  them  far  beyond 
the  reach  of  any  succour  from  the  source  from  which  it  should  come 


30 

for  their  relief.  It  has  been  shown,  how  necessary  it  will  be  to  the 
peace  of  the  country  to  ignore  the  political  proclivity  of  the  people 
in  the  agricultural  field,  and  what  may  be  demanded  in  this  case  in 
compliance  with  the  exigency  of  the  nation  will  be  fully  sustained 
where  the  claims  of  humanity  will  justify  it  in  another  in  behalf 
of  the  class  of  suiferers  for  whose  benefit  the  national  loan  could 
be  applied  as  a  donation  when  collected  through  the  Bureau  of  Agri- 
culture in  the  several  States.  When  their  condition  is  considered  as  it 
was  before  the  war  and  compare  it  with  their  present  situation,  it 
seems  to  be  the  severest  calamity  that  could  possibly  overtake  the 
widows  and  the  orphans,  while  the  State  through  which  they  are  suf- 
ering  is  powerless  and  can  afford  them  no  relief.  The  law  of  humanity 
that  justifies  the  succour  extended  to  the  wounded  enemy  upon  the 
field  of  slaughter,  points  with  more  force  to  the  duty  of  the  com- 
munity to  build  up  institutions  for  the  protection  and  the  education 
of  the  fatherless  children.  But  there  is  another  phase  that  must  be 
reached  to  make  the  subject  as  comprehensive  as  possible,  for  while 
th«  nation  may  never  be  in  the  situation  to  extend  its  pensicfn  roll 
to  the  Southern  States,  as  those  who  would  seek  its  benefits  were 
employed  against  the  Federal  Government,  yet  as  it  is  impossible 
to  leave  the  decrepid  in  the  misery  entailed  upon  them  by  the  in- 
cidents of  the  struggle,  therefore  the  duty  of  the  people  of  the 
several  States  ought  to  be  very  clear  in  reference  to  all  of  that  class 
and  especially  where  they  have  no  resources  to  fall  back  upon. 
But  what  would  stand  in  the  way  of  the  legislatures  making  the 
necessary  provision  for  them  if  the  gravity  of  the  subject  should 
have  sufficient  weight  to  Tyring  out  the  approval  of  the  Government 
and  the  people  of  tlie  loyal  Slates,  is  the  question  that  will  come  up 
for  consideration.  If  it  is  universally  conceded  that  without  seces- 
sion there  would  have  been  no  emancipation  in  the  Southern  States, 
then  it  will  be  seen  in  the  general  result  how  far  the  good  will  pre- 
ponderate against  the  evil  of  the  mission  it  has  performed  for  the 
nation  ;  therefore  let  the  entire  country  submit  to  the  contingencies 
and  heal  up  the  breach  that  all  may  rejoice  together. 

To  employ  the  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  ($50,000,000)  in  estab- 
lishing homes  for  the  invalids  and  in  building  up  other  institutions 
for  the  widows  and  orphans,  would  give  it  a  two-fold  character  and 
make  the  benefits  ramify  through  every  circle  of  society  in  that 
section  of  the  country,  and  when  the  sacrifice  the  amount  in  green- 


31 

backs  would  cost  the  United  States  in  materials  and  in  the  jnanu- 
factory  is  carefully  considered,  it  seems  to  be  impossible  for  the 
proposition  to  fail  without  carrying  with  it  the  dignity  of  the 
Republic. 

As  the  last  point  of  the  protocol  has  been  considered,  it  will  now 
afford  the  opportunity  to  take  a  retrospective  view  of  the  subject  to 
enable  the  people  of  this  country  to  comprehend  more  fully  the 
nature  and  the  magnitude  of  the  plan,  and  the  efforts  of  the  colored 
man  to  supply  the  means  to  arrive  at  the  solution  of  the  questions 
by  peaceful  means,  that  have  cost  the  nation  the  vast  sacrifice  of 
blood  and  treasure,  while  it  presents  not  a  single  feature  that  could 
not  be  reached  without  it.  It  is  decidedly  more  pleasant  to  enter 
upon  this  field  of  labor,  for  it  is  here  where  the  evidence  at  hand 
will  give  the  necessary  force  to  the  subject,  and  carry  it  above  the 
criticism  to  which  it  may  at  any  time  have  been  exposed  from  the 
want  of  information  in  reference  to  the  secret  purpose  of  the  plan 
submitted  to  many  of  the'leading  statesmen  who  were  called  upon 
to  review  it. 

But  it  is  worthy  of  note,  that  no  party  in  this  country  could 
have  adopted  the  plan  without  entering  into  the  revolutionary 
policy  it  aimed  to  infuse,  by  making  the  emancipation  of  all  the 
females  in  the  several  States,  by  compensation,  the  leading  feature, 
and  by  the  development  of  the  utility  of  free  labor  elsewhere  than 
in  the  Territories,  and  neutralize  the  theory  of  the  class  of  public 
men  who  were  "  the  representatives  of  white  men,"  and  consequently 
ignored  the  interest  of  the  colored  people  entirely. 

* 

But  as  they  have  been  driven  from  the  position  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  principles  which  makes  them  the  representatives  of 
the  American  people,  it  will  afford  them  the  means  to  study  and 
learn  something  from  the  fallacy  which  neutralized  their  usefulness 
and  carried  the  country  to  the  verge  of  disruption. 

The  vigor  with  which  the  pen  of  colored  men  may  be  employed, 
in  compliance  with  the  duty  imposed  upon  them  by  their  elevation 
in  the  scale  of  manhood,  will  preclude  the  necessity  for  any  apology 
for  the  course  that  will  be  pursued,  without  any  reference  to  the 
views  of  others,  to  fix  the  destiny  of  the  race  among  the  people  of 
the  United  States. 


32 


THE  DANGER  OF  SECESSION   CONSIDERED  IN   THE  -APPEAL   TO   THE 
PEOPLE  or  SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  UNION. 

Having  carefully  considered  the  tendency  and  the  danger  of 
secession  in  advance  of  the  developments  that  led  to  its  inaugura- 
tion, the  copy  of  the  document,  as  preserved,  will  show  the  correct- 
ness of  the  premises  and  will  give  those  whom  it  was  designed  to 
serve,  a  better  opportunity  to  study  the  >  colored  people  than  they 
will  ever  learn  of  them  from  the  stand-point  from  which  they 
were  seen  by  the  statesmen  of  the  country. 

"  BEDFORD,  L.  I.  October  31, 1860. 
"  To  his  Excellency  GOVERNOR  GIST. 

"  SIR  :  Hoping  that  your  excellency  will  carefully  consider  the 
subject  of  this  letter  and  weigh  its  contents  for  the  benefit  of  the 
people  of  South  Carolina,  I  deem  it  important  to  submit  it  to  you. 
It  is  the  first  of  the  series  of  documents  that  will  be  submitted  to 
the  Governors,  and  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States,  to  un- 
fold the  principles  by  which  the  nation  may  be  governed  to  escape 
the  danger  to  which  it  is  exposed,  from  the  cause  of  the  commotion 
in  the  public  mind.  The  distance  which  the  Statesmen  of  the 
Southern  and  Northern  States  have  been  led  from  each  other,  will 
preclude  them  from  originating  any  plan  to  control  the  country 
upon  principles  that  would  command  the  approval  of  the  people  in 
both  sections  with  the  means  they  have  employed  for  that  purpose. 
If  this  point  is  well  taken,  the  necessity  for  a  remedy  to  relieve 
the  people  from  the  suspense  created  by  the  intensity  of  the  excite- 
ment in  the  public  mind,  will  be  admitted  by  your  Excellency,  and 
if  I  should  succeed  in  establishing  the  position  of  the  arbitrator  to 
settle  the  sectional  contest  on  the  question  of  slavery  and  emancipa- 
tion, it  will  enable  me  to  command  the  attention  of  those  to  whom 
I  will  make  the  appeal  in  behalf  of  my  own  people. 

"  My  complexion  as  a  colored  man,  will  be  a  guarantee  for  the 
sincerity  of  my  intention,  and  the  efforts  I  have  made  to  serve 
the  people  of  the  Southern  States,  with  the  plan  to  relieve  them 


33 

from  the  danger  of  the  policy  by  which  they  are  governed  ;  and  if 
continued  in  it  can  lead  to  no  other  result  than  the  overthrow  of 
the  very  principle  it  is  intended  to  protect.  To  deal  with  this  sub- 
ject intelligently,  two  things  must  be  considered  by  your  Excellency 
and  the  honorable  members  of  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina, 
upon  whom  it  will  devolve  to  fix  the  principles  by  which  the  people 
of  that  State  will  be  governed  in  the  future,  in  reference  to  the  sub- 
ject of  emancipation  as  a  southern  measure  with  a  national  basis. 

"  The  mathematical  considerations  that  must  be  gone  into  to 
comprehend  every  phase  the  subject  will  undergo,  whether  it  assume 
an  extreme  Southern  aspect  in  all  its  ramifications  or  developments, 
be  made  to  make  it  harmonize  with  the  interests  of  the  country 
without  any  injustice  to  the  people  in  either  section.  That  this 
attempt  on  my  part  may  be  useful  to  the  efforts  to  preserve  the 
peace  of  the  country,  the  position  and  the  intention  of  the  people 
of  the  Southern  States  at  the  present  time  must  be  considered  in 
connection  with  the  principles  by  which  they  were  governed  at  the 
formation  of  the  government,  and  if  it  can  be  seen  that  there  is  a 
departure  from  the  line  of  policy  established  by  the  delegates  in  the 
convention  in  1787,  the  extenuating  cause  must  be  reviewed  without 
any  disguise. 

'•  If  it  is  admitted  that  the  African  slave  trade  continued  twenty 
years  in  compliance  with  the  demand  of  the  delegates  from  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina,  and  that  the  time  fixed  upon  for  its  termination 
was  sanctioned  by  them,  then  it  is  very  important  to  know  whether  the 
people  of  these  two  States  will  stand  by  the  compact  to  protect  the 
dignity  of  the  nation  or  whether  they  will  abandon  it  without  any 
regard  to  it !  This  is  the  question  that  must  be  answered  in  har- 
mony with  the  views  of  the  people  who  are  opposed  to  the  slave 
trade,  or  it  must  assume  an  aspect  that  will  accord  with  the  dispo- 
sition to  favor  it  regardless  of  the  consequences  which  may  follow. 
The  gravity  of  the  subject  will  be  fully  developed  if  considered  in 
connection  with  the  progress  of  public  opinion  in  the  free  States 
which  is  sweeping  before  it  every  effort  that  tends  to  favor  the 
slave  trade  as  an  issue  before  the  people  of  this  country.  If  the 
convention  surrendered  to  it  in  1787,  the  position  the  Southern 
States  will  assume  at  this  crisis  will  show  the  magnanimity  and 
the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  the  Union. 


34 

"  The  fact  that  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina  will  be  called 
upon  to  deal  with  this  subject  with  a  view  to  abandon  the  ultra 
Southern  policy  by  which  her  statesmen  have  been  controlled,  is  of 
the  highest  importance,  as  the  safety  of  that  section  of  the  country 
depends  upon  the  wisdom  and  the  forbearance  of  the  people  who 
must  sacrifice  principles  which  cannot  be  sustained  without  expos- 
ing them  to  an  extremity  that  may  lead  to  the  gravest  consequences. 
The  necessity  for  guarding  against  creating  any  suspicion  in  the 
mind  of  Southern  men,  led  me  to  suppress  the  subject  of  my  mis- 
sion until  the  exigencies  of  the  times  would  enable  me  to  make 
the  eifort  to  submit  it  to  the  legislatures  of  the  several  States  with 
the  approval  of  the  people  of  this  country.  The  impression  that 
I  could  make  it  useful  to  the  nation  and  promote  the  interest  of  my 
own  people,  was  too  deeply  fixed  in  my  mind  to  permit  me  to  look 
with  indiiference  upon  the  efforts  of  the  statesmen  in  the  develop- 
ment of  principles  against  the  peace  of  the  country  and  its  internal 
relations,  if  not  revolutionary  in  their  tendency,  without  carrying 
with  them  any  benefit  to  the  colored  people. 

"  That  your  Excellency  and  the  honorable  members  of  the 
legislature  may  fully  comprehend  the  magnitude  and  the  gravity 
of  the  subject  and  the  necessity  of  submitting  it  at  this  juncture,  I 
will  reveal  the  policy  I  have  followed  in  my  appeals  to  the  legisla- 
tures of  some  of  the  Southern  States  to  make  agriculture  the  basis 
of  emigration  to  Africa.  If  it  was  the  intention  to  remove  the 
free  colored  people  from  motives  of  philanthropy,  the  elaborate  plan 
devised  for  that  purpose  by  me  is  sufficient  to  carry  it  out  to  the 
fullest  extent  without  exposing  them  to  the  penalty  of  confiscating 
the  freedom  of  any.  But  if  the  object  was  the  re-enslavement  of 
my  people  I  considered  it  my  duty  to  stand  between  them  and  the 
State  Legislatures  as  far  as  I  could  to  shield  them  against  any 
legislation  without  the  real  object  being  fully  revealed.  Three 
appeals  were  made  to  the  legislature  of  Virginia  during  the  last 
two  administrations,  two  of  which  were  very  important  to  the  free 
colored  people  of  that  State,  as  the  question  was  pending  each  time 
to  enact  a  law  to  enslave  them  if  they  did  not  leave  within  time 
limited  for  that  purpose.  In  each  case  the  proposition  failed  and 
the  prompting  of  humanity  was  triumphant  in  the  Legislature, 
which  is  the  only  refuge  for  that  proscribed  people.  Appeals  were 


35 

made  to  Maryland,  Tennessee,  Indiana,  Georgia  and  Florida,  and 
without  expecting  or  having  received  any  reply,  yet  the  result  of 
ray  efforts  to  save  the  colored  people  with  the  plan  of  emigration 
were  fully  established  by  the  proceedings  of  the  legislatures  where 
it  was  considered.  The  necessity  of  adopting  it  as  a  policy  by 
which  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  could  lead  the  country 
was  elaborately  gone  into,  not  only  in  the  documents  to  the  Legis- 
latures but  in  the  letters  written  to  influential 'men  in  that  section 
of  the  Union.  The  fact  that  the  South  has  lost  the  opportunity  and 
is  thrown  back  upon  the  people  of  the  free  States,  upon  whom  it 
will  depend  to  make  the  plan  of  emigration  the  limits  to  the  efforts 
in  behalf  of  the  colored  people  until  emancipation  can  be  mutually 
considered,  is  the  phase  the  subject  must  assume.  The  two-fold 
object  I  had  in  view  having  been  developed  as  far  as  possible,  it 
was  not  necessary,  that  I  should  lose  any  time  with  intelligent  men 
who  stood  in  a  position  to  avail  themselves  of  the  useful  aspect  of 
the  subject  or  ignore  it  if  they  had  no  disposition  to  apply  it  as  the 
solution  to  the  question  for  the  elevation  of  the  free  colored  people. 
The  scale  upon  which  it  was  submitted  to  the  legislatures  of  New 
York  and  New  Jersey  will  enable  me  to  establish  the  non-sectional 
position  upon  which  the  claims  of  the  race  may  be  submitted  to 
the  country.  The  aspect  it  will  assume  in  the  free  States  will  be 
very  important,  inasmuch  as  the  philanthropy  of  the  American 
people  will  lead  to  its  adoption  to  save  the  colored  people  or  it  will 
prove  itself  insufficient  for  that  object  from  the  want  of  sincerity. 
If  your  Excellency  will  examine  the  subject  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
support  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  will  give  it  the  neces- 
sary force  and  make  it  precede  any  attempt  to  reach  the  question 
of  emancipation  which  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  the 
demand  for  laborers  in  the  South.  If  the  modification  of  the  laws 
of  the  several  States  can  be  carried  with  a  view  to  make  up  the 
deficit  with  free  labor,  it  would  afford  the  necessary  relief  with  far 
less  danger  than  it  would  to  seek  it  by  opening  the  slave  trade. 
Sooner  or  later  this  subject  will  develop  itself  to  the  States  of  the 
South  and  will  be  seen  as  a  necessity  that  must  be  met  for  the  relief 
of  the  people.  To  admit  free  labor  in  the  Southern  States  whether 
colored  or  white,  would  not  only  be  important  to  the  planters,  but 
it  would  be  equally  important  to  the  colored  people  in  the  free 
States,  who  must  seek  a  refuge  somewhere. 


36 

"  As  desirous  as  I  am  for  the  emancipation  and  the  elevation  of 
my  people,  and  believing  that  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  would 
preclude  the  necessity  of  any  legislation  upon  the  subject,  yet  as  I 
consider  it  a  duty  to  humanity  to  urge  a  policy  that  will  protect  the 
innocent  and  lead  to  mutual  efforts  by  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  accomplish  that  object,  I  will  submit  it  and  trust  to  their 
wisdom  for  success.  It  would  be  a  fatal  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  future  of  the  colored  people  in  this  country  can  be  known  from 
their  past  history,  for  in  spite  of  the  degrading  position  they  occupy 
they  would  not  fail  to  seize  up  on  any  opportunity  that  would  ena- 
ble them  to  prove  their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Freedom.  The  fact 
that  the  Union  with  the  means  to  develop  the  resources,  would  be 
far  more  advantageous  to  the  Southern  States  than  could  possibly 
be  derived  out  of  it,  is  a  grave  subject  and  cannot  be  ignored  under 
any  contingency  that  may  occur,  if  the  welfare  of  the  people  should 
govern  the  statesmen.  Without  reviewing  the  difficulties  that 
would  arise  from  the  necessity  of  a  foreign  policy,  I  will  leave  the 
subject,  believing  that  the  people  will  not  be  driven  from  their  loy- 
alty by  mere  apprehension.  By  a  reference  to  the  speech  made  at 
"Sleepy  Hollow"  by  a  distinguished  Senator  in  South  Carolina 
some  two  years  since,  the  statement  was  made  to  the  effect,  "  That 
the  sympathy  for"  the  free  colored  people  "  in  the  free  States  is  not 
sufficient  to  cause  any  apprehension  to  the  South."  That  is  true, 
and  while  that  address  was  condemned  and  repudiated  in  the  South, 
yet  its  safety  depends  upon  the  policy  embodied  in  it.  For  while 
the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  the  Executive  of 
the  United  States  will  at  no  distant  day  be  under  the  control  of 
those  who  will  be  opposed  to  the  slave  trade,  and  to  the  extension 
of  slavery,  and  will  aim  to  place  the  government  where  it  stood  at  the 
commencement  of  its  existence,  yet  from  the  very  nature  of  things, 
it  will  be  harmless  to  the  South.  If  the  purity  of  the  government 
is  necessary  to  its  existence  to  secure  it  by  removing  the  cause  of 
legislative  conspiracy  to  sustain  sectional  issues,  is  an  object  that 
will  commend  itself  to  every  considerate  statesman  of  the  country. 
In  connection  with  this  letter,  I  will  send  a  copy  of  my  pamphlet 
which  contains  the  text  of  the  subject  in  all  its  ramifications,  and 
I  will  supply  copies  for  the  members  of  the  legislature  as  soon  as 
I  can.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  submit  to  the  legislature  the  plan 
of  emigration  to  create  a  neutral  position  upon  this  subject  which 


37 

may  be  very  important  to  the  people,  until  the  new  order  of  things 
are  fully  developed  in  favor  of  emancipation. 

"  Hoping  that  this  will  be  considered  as  an  object  worthy  of  the 
attention  of  your  Excellency  and  the  people,  it  is  respectfully  sub- 
mitted by  your  obedient  servant" 

"  L.  II.  PUTNAM." 


Looking  to  the  objects  to  be  obtained  from  the  success  of  this 
as  4  national  work,  will  preclude  the  necessity  of  seeking  from  any 
higher  source  the  right  to  speak  as  by  authority,  and  taking  as  the 
text,  the  subject  by  which  the  way  to  the  legislature  of  South 
Carolina  was  fully  prepared  previous  to  the  war.  For  as  the  sequel 
has  brought  with  it  all  the  consequences  referred  to  in  the  appeal 
submitted  as  a  warning  by  one  of  that  proscribed  class,  it  is  impor- 
tant to  confront  the  people  at  the  point  where  the  first  shock  to  the 
Union  was  felt,  that  the  remedy  for  the  calamity  that  has  fallen  with 
equal  force  upon  the  other  States  of  the  rebellion  may  be  applied. 

For  what  they  failed  to  learn  with  the  aid  of  their  superior 
intelligence  in  the  first  place,  they  will  fully  comprehend  from  the 
reflex  of  the  light  which  the  minds  of  black  men  may  emit  in  the 
struggle  to  maintain  the  ideas  proinulgated  by  the  framers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  first  point  of  any  importance  that  will  present  itself  to  the 
reflecting  mind,  will  be  seen  in  the  want  of  appreciation  and  in  the 
condemnation  of  the  speech  made  at "  Sleepy  Hollow"  by  an  ardent 
supporter  of  State  sovereignty,  and  which  will  go  very  far  to  fix  the 
impression  that  nothing  but  the  stern  results  that  have  followed 
the  catastrophe  of  the  battle-field,  could  in  the  slighest  degree  arrest  . 
the  designs  of  those  who  were  guiding  the  destiny  of  the  south  with- 
out any  reference  to  the  power,  and  the  higher  laws  that  governs 
the  universe. 


38 

For  it  was  too  true,  as  stated  by  the  distinguished  Senator  of 
South  Carolina,  that  there  was  nothing  to  show  that  any  sympathy 
existed  for  the  colored  people  in  the  free  States,  sufficient  to  alarm 
the  South,  and  it  was  from  a  similar  conviction  created  in  the  mind 
of  the  writer  of  the  document  that  prompted  him  to  take  part  in  the 
efforts  to  arrive  at  a  solution  of  the  questions  by  which  the  country 
was  agitated,  and  aiming  at  results  directly  opposite  to  the  policy 
by  which  public  men  were  governed. 

The  second  point  is  the  value  of  the  document  as  an  indication 
of  the  disposition  to  shield  from  danger  those  who  were  aiming  to 
perpetuate  the  oppression  of  the  colored  people,  and  the  secret  his- 
tory and  the  magnitude  of  the  work  "written  for  that  purpose  will 
fix  for  all  time  to  come  its  grandeur  and  the  design  to  guidejthe 
,  efforts  for  emancipation  and  elevation  in  this  country. 

But  while  the  developments  that  will  be  made  upon  this  subject 
will  be  more  than  sufiicient  to  indicate  the  inflexible  devotion  of  the 
author  to  the  cause  of  universal  liberty,  yet  it  is  proper  that  some 
reference  should  be  made  in  this  connection  to  other  branches  of 
the  subject  extending  to  the  Russian  Empire,  and  to  Dahomey  in 
Africa,  and  will  form  part  of  the  great  work  that  must  be  performed 
for  the  benefit  of  the  human  family. 

The  first  is  the  efforts  to  devise  a  plan  to  fix  the  relations  of  the 
emancipated  in  Russia  to  the  soil,  and  to  show  the  fact  that  it  was 
accomplished  at  the  time  when  it  could  not  fail  to  be  useful,  as  an 
object  that  would  merit  some  attention  in  that  country.  The  means 
employed  to  have  the  plan  submitted  to  the  Emperor,  would  have 
been  ample  in  either  of  the  two  channels  fixed  upon  for  the  purpose,  as 
the  civility  of  the  Baron,  as  a  member  of  the  Legation  at  Washing- 
ton,was  only  equal  to  the  attention  given  to  the  subject  by-  the  Ameri- 
can Minister  previous  to  his  return  to  St.  Petersburgh. 

At  the  interview  with  the  latter  at  the  St.  Nicholas  Hotel  in 
the  City  of  New  York,  a  full  exposition  was  made  to  show  the  feasi- 
bility of  elevating  the  emancipated  above  the  condition  of  tenants 
at  will,  which  is  slavery  in  the  second  degree,  by  securing  for  every 
family  the  right  in  fee  to  homesteads  on  the  estates  of  tlife  nobles. 


39 

The  reference  that  may  be  made  to  the  plan  as  an  agency  to 
emancipation  in  the  Brazillian  Empire,  and  also  in  the  Colonies  of 
Spain,  seems  to  be  sufficient  in  its  magnitude  to  make  a  serious  im- 
pression in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  upon  the  two  governments, 
from  the  necessity  by  which  they  will  be  led  by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, sooner  or  later  to  maintain  the  relations  of  the  emancipated 
with  the  soil  by  a  freehold  interest  the  same  as  will  be  demanded  by 
the  agricultural  interests  in  the  Southern  States.  To  those  who  are 
in  need  of  information,  let  them  seek  it  in  the  result  of  the  transition 
of  twenty  millions,  (20,000,000)  of  persons  in  the  Russian  Empire, 
from  the  condition  of  serfs  to  the  elevation  of  freemen.  But  while 
the  plan  was  not  published  as  contemplated,  yet  the  adoption  of  the  • 
principles  by  the  command  of  the  Emperor  will  afford  all  the  con- 
solation that  could  be  derived  from  the  effect  of  the  measures  that 
will  lead  to  a  complete  revolution  in  the  social  relations  of  the 
peasantry  of  that  country  as  the  agricultural  class,  and  upon  the 
unborn  millions  who  will  enjoy  the  blessings  it  will  confer  upon 
them. 

The  communication  written  to  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
for  the  purpose  of  submitting  to  the  government  of  her  Majesty  the 
Queen  of  England,  the  plan  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade, 
and  the  annual  custom  of  the  King  of  Dahomey,  with  an  elaborate 
exposition  of  the  views,  and  indicating  the  means  by  which  the  en- 
tire people  could  be  led  to  conform  to  the  principles  of  civilization, 
and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the  system  of  absorption  that  would 
tend  to  make  the  country  an  English  Colony,  will  fully  repay  in r 
the  labor  it  cost. 

The  declaration  made  in  the  British  Parliament  by  Lord  John 
Russell  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  to  the  effect,  that  the  in- 
tiuence  of  England  was  ample  to  control  the  King,  opened  the  way 
for  the  attempt  to  show  the  necessity  of  employing  it  in  behalf  of 
civilization  in  the  section  of  the  continent  of  Africa,  which  was 
known  to  be  the  great  mart  of  the  sla\re  trade. 

In  looking  at  the*  subject  of  the  labor  to  promote  the  happiness 
of  mankind,  let  us  pause  here  and  contemplate  upon  the  grandeur 
and  the  effect  of  the  change  upon  the  social  condition  of  society 
from  the  adoption  of  the  homestead  system  in  other  countries,  where 


40. 

hostility  against  color  is  not  carried  to  tlie  extent  to  which  it  prevails 
in  the  United  States,  and  where  a  large  portion  of  those  who  are 
friends  of  freedom  have  yet  to  reach  the  point  to  enable  them  to 
favor  the  elevation  of  the  Freedmen  with  the  aim  to  break  up  caste. 

But  the  extraordinary  rapidity  with  which  the  country  is  driven 
will  be  sufficient  to  change  the  spirit  of  the  people  and  enable  them 
to  see  in  the  colored  man  an  ally  on  whom  they  must  depend.  To 
confound  those  in  their  schemes  against  freedom,  and  neutralize 
their  designs  would  indeed  be  an  object  of  the  highest  importance, 
but  to  accomplish  it,  it  will  depend  upon  the  ability  of  colored  men 
to  suggest  measures  that  will  merit  the  approval  of  all  who  are  dis- 
posed to  recognize  the  power  they  must  exercise  to  rise  to  any 
position  of  distinction  in  the  Republic.  For  if  it  is  possible  to  make 
the  commencement  at  any  time,  let  us  try  to  do  it  from  this  point, 
by  throwing  out  the  planks  for  the  construction  of  a  national  plat- 
form in  the  Southern  States,  and  cover  the  ground  others  would 
occupy,  to  the  injury  of  our  race  if  they  had  the  materials  at  hand. 

The  first  object  to  be  accomplished  by  the  development  of  the 
principles  embodied  in  this  work,  is  to  make  it  the  precursor  of  the 
elements  by  which  the  colored  people  will  be  carried  to  the  elevation 
that  will  be  made  for  them  by  the  surrender  of  the  pretension  to 
superiority  that  cannot  be  sustained  by  other  means  than  the  assump- 
tion by  which  the  dominant  class  have  been  governed  in  this  coun- 
try. Therefore  it  is  the  duty  of  the  leading  men  to  enter  the  field, 
not  as  advocates  of  any  exclusive  class,  but  to  demonstrate  their 
abilities  to  deal  with  the  questions,  of  the  day  with  dignity  and 
intelligence  and  thereby  command  the  attention  and  the  respect  of 
public  opinion.  While  the  labor  will  fall  on  the  few  who  are  educated 
up  to  the  times,  yet  under  the  guidance  of  Providence,  they  must 
make  themselves  equal  to  the  requirements  of  the  untutored  mass 
who  are  exposed  to  the  criticism  of  those  who  will  struggle  to  the 
last  to  resist  the  current  of  the  revolution  by  which  the  nation  is 
carried  onward  in  its  new  mission. 

Programme  is  : 

1.  The  enlargement  of  the  work  by  adding  to  it  documents  and 
important  letters  to  leading  statesmen  in  the  Southern  and  Northern 
States. 


\  4:1 

2.  The  issue  of  the  second  number  of  the  pamphlet  for  distribu- 
tion, with  the  history  of  the  mission  from  its  origin,  with  the  neces- 
sary reference  to  those  wio  inspired  the  author  with  the  ideas  that 
led  him  to  assume  it,  and  enable  them  to  learn  that  all  the  attempts 
to  "  withdraw"  from  it,  have  increased  the  vigor  by  which  they 
were  held  as  the  repository  of  the  plan  of  the  revolution  in  behalf 
of  Freedom,  and  of  the  reputation  of  the  man  who  had  no  other 
dependence  as  the  shield  excepting  in  the  merits  of  the  work,  for 
his  elevation  in  the  public  mind. 

3.  The  labor  in  the  Southern  States  with  the  design  to  reach  the 
people  at  large,  without  any  reference  to  their  views  on  the  topic  of 
the  day,  and  infuse  the  spirit  of  the  work  in  the  minds  of  the  colored 
people  that  they  may  comprehend  the  purpose  of  the  union  between 
capital  and  labor,  and  perform  as  freemen  the  duty  of  citizens  of 
the  Republic. 


42 

APPENDIX. 

The  intention  is  to  revise  and  enlarge  the  review  by  adding  to 
it  a  document  on  the  financial  policy  of  the  nation  as  a  criticism 
on  the  subject  of  specie  payment.  The  want  of  a  comprehensive 
plan  for  the  management  of  the  question  cannot  fail  to  create  the 
impression  that  it  has  completely  overwhelmed  the  ideas  of  those 
who  are  struggling  to  reach  a  solution  that  will  settle  the  basis  for 
the  currency  of  the  country.  This  is  a  grave  subject,  inasmuch  as 
it  involves  the  integrity  of  the  government  of  the  United  States 
through  the  measures  of  the  statesmen  who  must  show  that  they 
are  equal  to  the  requirements  as  managers. 

They  are  bound  to  bring  to  an  end  the  policy  by  which  gold  and 
silver  were  transformed  from  a  currency  into  a  commodity  for 
speculation,  with  the  Treasury  Department  as  the  centre.  It  must  be 
shown  that  the  exigency  that  forced  the  greenbacks  into  use  has 
ceased  and  the  system  fixed  upon  for  the  withdrawal  of  these  pro- 
mises and  if  not,  then  a  fiscal  agency  should  be  established  to  sus- 
tain it  upon  a  specie  basis. 

While  the  theory  of  the  Ohio  statesman  in  favor  of  the  exten- 
sion of  the  issue  of  this  circulating  medium  is  sustained  by  the 
views  advanced  in  the  same  direction  by  the  members  of  the  House 
from  Massachusetts  and  other  leading  minds  of  the  country,  and  is 
not  without  its  plausible  features,  and  yet  the  fatal  mistake  they 
have  made  by  not  making  a  distinction  between  the  provisional  use 
of  the  greenbacks  and  the  want  of  a  permanent  system  by  which 
the  nation  may  separate  its  financial  management  from  the  com- 
mercial interest  as  involved  in  its  connection  with  the  National 
Banks,  by  the  organization  of  the  necessary  fiscal  agency  to  sustain  . 
it,  therefore,  they  must  fail. 

The  innocency  and  the  earnestness  with  which  the  subject  has 
been  submitted  to  the  public  seems  to  be  wholly  inadequate  for  the 
display  of  the  brilliant  ideas  that  should  emanate  from  the  minds 
of  'men  of  genius,  inasmuch  as  the  aim  is  to  issue  an  amount  of 
greenbacks  far  greater  than  it  would  be  in  the  power  of  the  govern- 
ment to  control  with  any  degree  of  honesty. 

The  next  object  of  the  enlargement  will  be  for  the  production 
of  letters  that  were  written  to  prominent  men  with  the  view  to 


43 

bring  out  some  action  in  behalf  of  the  plan  to  promote  free  labor 
in  the  Southern  States  in  connection  with  the  efforts  to  make  emi- 
gration a  national  question.  The  labor  expended  to  make  the  sub- 
ject worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  managers  of  the  colonization 
society  and  to  carry  it  out  through  its  agency  will  of  itself  present 
a  record  that  will  be  as  grand  as  it  will  be  important  to  the  public 
and  to  the  class  of  friends  who  gave  it  their  support.  Organized 
as  that  institution  was  to  represent  the  philanthropy  of  the  nation 
in  behalf  of  the  colored  people  and  under  the  control  of  some  of 
the  ablest  minds  of  the  country,  and  having  assumed  the  position 
as  a  promoter  of  the  cause,  it  is  necessary  that  my  relation  with  it 
should  become  the  subject  of  criticism  by  the  public.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  danger  of  the  absorption  of  the  society  by  the  opera- 
tion of  the  plan  to  make  agriculture  the  basis  of  emigration,  and 
the  inroad  upon  the  policy  by  which  it  was  governed  from  its  exis- 
tence w^fe  fully  developed  upon  a  scale  that  completely  neutralized 
the  design  of  those  who  had  given  it  their  sanction  and  support. 
The  cause  of  the  hardship  suffered  by  the  emigrants  seems  to  have 
been  a  subject  of  very  little  moment  to  the  managers,  or  else  the 
necessity  for  relief  was  concealed  from  them  by  the  reports  made 
from  time  to  time  in  reference  to  the  real  condition  of  things  in 
Liberia. 

The  proposition  to  establish  a  farm  in  that  country  to  culti- 
vate coffee,  cotton,  rice  and  indigo  to  demonstrate  the  necessity 
of  an  entire  change  in  their  plan  of  emigration  was  carried  into 
operation  with  their  knowledge  by  sending -out  a  person  with 
a  full  supply  of  agricultural  implements  with  ample  provision 
for  his  support.  To  make  it  the  personal  property  of  myself  and 
;i— uciate  I  propose  to  establish  one  hundred  ten  acre  farms  for  as 
many  families  (free  from  any  charge  to  them)  out  of  the  annual 
product  under  the  direction  or  supervision  of  the  board  of  managers. 
But  the  want  of  a  comprehensive  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
plan  and  its  purpose  at  the  outset  was  their  misfortune,  and  the 
means  resorted  to  to  withdraw  this  influence  as  the  remedy,  was  not 
only  against  their  genius  but  it  was  a  betrayal  of  the  weakness  in  the 
management  of  the  colonization  society.  The  importance  of  this 
discovery,  in  connection  with  the  result  of  the  examination  carefully 
made,  into  the  commercial  operations  carried  on  with  Liberia,  was 
fully  considered  and  the  means  adopted  to  make  it  known  to  the 


44: 

public.  It  was  the  commencement  of  the  work  to  dig  under  its 
foundation,  and  prepare  the  way  for  the  absorption  of  the  entire 
organization  by  the  efforts  to  establish  a  board  of  five  Commissioners 
in  every  State,  under  the  supervision  of  the  legislatures  with  the 
Governors  as  ex-qfficio  members,  to  sustain  emigration  to  Africa 
with  the  support  of  Congress.  This  was  the  plan  to  establish 
thirty-one  districts  through  the  agency  of  the  government  of 
Liberia,  to  represent  for  six  hundred  families  in  each  of  the  several 
States,  and  to  cost  six  million  dollars  ($'6,000,000). 

The  plan  was  not  only  submitted  to  the  managers  of  the  New  York 
State  Colonization  Society,  and  was  the  subject  of  debate  during 
an  entire  sitting ;  but  it  was  transmitted  to  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  board  of  directors  of  the  American  Colonization  Society  in 
Washington,  with  an  elaborate  exposition  of  the  commercial  policy. 
These  documents  in  effect  were  regular  bomb-shells,  and  especially 
to  the  new  delegation,  and  was  the  occasion  of  the  most  exciting 
session  ever  held  by  that  body.  As  the  adoption  of  the  plan  would 
have  been  the  end  of  the  New  York  board  of  managers,  the  cause 
of  its  resistance  will  be  worthy  of  the  most  serious  attention.  The 
most  important  result  was  the  abandonment  of  the  commercial 
operation,  as  it  was  carried  on  in  the  name  of  the  Colonization 
Society,  which  shows  the  disposition  of  the.  Board  to  shield  its  honor, 
and  the  reputation  of  its  members  against  the  doings  of  its  agents. 

This  reference  to  .the  secret  history  is  to  show  that  the  society  in 
this  State  was  "  driven  on  ly  the  law  of  self-preservation  to  struggle 
for  its  existence"  It  enables  me  to  assume  the  position  to  defy  the 
members  of  the  Board  of  Managers  individually  and  collectively, 
to  make  the  attempt  to  occupy  any  other  ground  than  that.  For- 
tified as  I  am  behind  the  three  hundred  pages  of  documents  with 
twelve  circulars  hid  away  in  the  archives  of  the  Board  of  Managers 
and  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  American  Colonization  Society 
it  is  the  point  to  which  they  must  look. 

The  confidence  reposed  in  me  by  friends  of  my  race,  and  the 
progress  and  the  blessings  bestowed  upon  me,  good  men  were  duly 
cherished,  and  by  which  I  was  sustained  in  the  darkest  hours  of 
the  struggle  to  overcome  all  opposition  and  stand  before  the  coun- 
try as  a  worthy  representative  of  the  colored  people,  and  an  honor- 
able citizen  of  the  Republic. 


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